Tools Used to Evaluate Written Medicine and Health Information: Document and User Perspectives

This study aims to identify and review tools used to evaluate consumer-oriented written medicine (WMI) and health (WHI) information from a document and user perspective. Articles that met the following inclusion criteria were reviewed: studies evaluating readability, presentation, suitability, quali...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health education & behavior 2011-08, Vol.38 (4), p.389-403
Main Authors: Luk, Alice, Aslani, Parisa, Stud, Grad Cert Ed
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Comprehension
Consumers
Content Validity
Drug Labeling - methods
Global health
Health
Health care
Health education
Health Literacy
Humans
Information Sources
Literacy
Measures (Individuals)
Medical sciences
Medicine
Miscellaneous
Patient education
Patient Education as Topic - methods
Patient satisfaction
Pharmaceutical Preparations
Prescription drugs
Prevention and actions
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Readability
Reading Materials
Smog
Suitability
Writing
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:This study aims to identify and review tools used to evaluate consumer-oriented written medicine (WMI) and health (WHI) information from a document and user perspective. Articles that met the following inclusion criteria were reviewed: studies evaluating readability, presentation, suitability, quality of WMI/WHI. A total of 152 articles were identified, of which 64 satisfied the inclusion criteria. Fifty-nine original studies used evaluation tools and 5 reviewed a specific group of tools. Sixteen detailed the development or validation of an instrument. Fifteen studies evaluated WMI and 28 evaluated WHI. Twenty-three evaluation instruments were identified. Of the seven readability tests, SMOG was predominantly used (12 of 43 studies). Eight tools measured health literacy, with REALM being the most popular instrument (7 of 43). SAM was the most commonly used presentation tool (12 of 43 studies). Many tools are available to evaluate WMI and WHI. However, the majority are researcher focused. Most evaluate readability and presentation, revealing a gap in valid and reliable tools for assessing quality of information, and those that can be used by consumers.
ISSN:1090-1981
1552-6127
DOI:10.1177/1090198110379576