Readability of Online Patient Education Materials Related to Liver Transplantation in the United States

Abstract

Background: Healthcare outcomes are influenced by both the effectiveness of healthcare delivery and the health literacy of patients. Patient education materials (PEMs) play a crucial role in disseminating health information to the patients. PEMs need to be at the level of grade six for optimal comprehension across diverse populations. However, that has not been the case in prior studies in healthcare-related fields. We aimed to evaluate the readability status of online PEMs of active adult and pediatric liver transplant institutions. Methods: We used standardized tools to calculate indices, namely Flesch Reading Ease (FRE), Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Gunning–Fog Score (GFS), Coleman–Liau Index (CLI), and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook for readability assessment. These indices use various measures, like average sentence length, average syllable per word, polysyllable count, and/or average number of letters per 100 words, to determine grade level. Results: The mean reading level of the PEMs was grade 10.73 ± 3.07, corresponding to grade 7 to 14. One-way ANOVA showed no statistically significant difference between these indices (p-value < 0.05). Conclusions: The readability of liver transplant centers’ PEMs exceeded the recommended level, hindering their generalizability to the broader population. This highlights the importance of optimizing the readability of PEMs to improve outcomes for equitable healthcare services.