David Richard Hansberry PhD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Ann John, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Elizabeth John, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Nitin Agarwal, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Sharon F Gonzales MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Stephen R. Baker MD, Abstract Co-Author: Director, One Call Medical, Inc

The widespread availability and ease of access has made the Internet a major source of healthcare information for patients. To account for patient diversity, the American Medical Association (AMA) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines recommend that consumer healthcare websites be written between a 3rd and 7th grade level. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the jointly sponsored American College of Radiology and the Radiology Society of North America website, RadiologyInfo.org, for its level of readability.

In December 2012, patient education resources from RadiologyInfo.org were downloaded. Each of the 137 patient education articles available on RadiologyInfo.org were assessed for their respective level of readability using 10 different scales: the Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, SMOG Grading, Coleman-Liau Index, Gunning-Fog Index, New Dale-Chall, FORCAST, Fry graph, Raygor Estimate, and New Fog Count.

All 137 articles were written at a level well above the AMA and NIH recommended guidelines of material to be written no higher than a 7th grade level. In fact, only 5% (7/137) were written below the 10th grade level and only 1.5% were below the 9th grade level. When averaged across all 137 articles, the readability of material on RadiologyInfor.org ranged between the 11.5 and 13.7 grade levels.

The readability of the text of patient education resources on RadiologyInfo.org is beyond both the AMA and NIH recommended guidelines. This disconnect may negatively impact patient understanding of such Internet resources. Therefore, patient education resources available on RadiologyInfo.org may benefit from revision in an attempt to improve patient comprehension.

NA

Hansberry, D, John, A, John, E, Agarwal, N, Gonzales, S, Baker, S, A Critical Review of the Level of Readability of Online Patient Education Materials from RadiologyInfo.org.  Radiological Society of North America 2013 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, December 1 - December 6, 2013 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2013/13021222.html