Readability of online oculoplastics patient education materials could be better
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CHICAGO — There is room for improvement to make oculoplastics education materials more readable and accountable, according to a study presented here.
Researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine found that most oculoplastic patient education materials were written at inaccessible levels and lacked accountability metrics.
“What we did was a Google search for 10 common oculoplastic diagnoses and 10 treatments, and we analyzed the first 10 pages that were associated with each Google search,” Samuel A. Cohen, BS, said at the ASOPRS Fall Scientific Symposium.
Cohen and colleagues analyzed education materials for readability and accountability standards. They determined readability using grade level while accountability was measured based on the presence of four features: authors and their credentials, references, relevant disclosures and the date of the last update.
Despite the AMA recommending that patient education materials be written at a sixth grade reading level or lower, only 31% of diagnosis material and 27% of treatment material met that level. Instead, the average grade level was 10.85 for information related to diagnoses and 10.93 for information related to treatments.
When grading accountability on a four-point system, the average scores were 1.11 for information on diagnoses and 0.70 for information on treatments.
In addition, the first five to six hits on a Google search were from private practices and educational institutions.
“What we invite all providers to do is to take a look at their own websites and brochures and check to see the readability of their patient education materials,” Cohen said.
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Cohen SA, et al. Analysis of the readability and accountability of online oculoplastics patient education materials. Presented at: ASOPRS Fall Scientific Symposium; Sept. 29-30, 2022; Chicago.
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