Assessing the Readability of English and Spanish Online Patient Educational Materials for Deep Venous Thrombosis

• Published in: The Journal of surgical research 2024-11, Vol.303, p.89-94
• Main Authors: Wang, Karissa M., Ramirez, Joel L., Iannuzzi, James C., Ulloa, Jesus G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Comprehension; Deep venous thrombosis; DVT; Educational materials; Health Literacy; Humans; Internet; Language; Online patient education; Patient Education as Topic; Readability; Reading; Venous Thrombosis - prevention & control
• ISSN: 0022-4804; 1095-8673; 1095-8673
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2024.08.013

Online patient educational materials (OPEMs) help patients engage in their health care. The American Medical Association (AMA) recommends OPEM be written at or below the 6th grade reading level. This study assessed the readability of deep venous thrombosis OPEM in English and Spanish. Google searches were conducted in English and Spanish using “deep venous thrombosis” and “trombosis venosa profunda,” respectively. The top 25 patient-facing results were recorded for each, and categorized into source type (hospital, professional society, other). Readability of English OPEM was measured using several scales including the Flesch Reading Ease Readability Formula and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Readability of Spanish OPEM was measured using the Fernández-Huerta Index and INFLESZ Scale. Readability was compared to the AMA recommendation, between languages, and across source types. Only one (4%) Spanish OPEM was written at an easy level, compared to 7 (28%) English OPEM (P = 0.04). More English (28%) OPEM were easy to read compared to Spanish (4%), with a significant difference in reading difficulty breakdown between languages (P = 0.04). The average readability scores for English and Spanish OPEM across all scales were significantly greater than the recommended level (P