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2. According to the 2003National Adult Literacy Survey, 93 million Americans (45%_ have limited reading, writing, and quantitative skills. About 50% have difficulty using print materials to accomplish everyday tasks. In the health arena, patients need to understand their illness or injury, monitor symptoms, schedule appointments and take medications in order to self-manage their conditions; however, information provided to patients may not be written or spoken at a level that they can understand. According to the 2003National Adult Literacy Survey, 93 million Americans (45%_ have limited reading, writing, and quantitative skills. About 50% have difficulty using print materials to accomplish everyday tasks. In the health arena, patients need to understand their illness or injury, monitor symptoms, schedule appointments and take medications in order to self-manage their conditions; however, information provided to patients may not be written or spoken at a level that they can understand.
3. An analysis of 100 print items from the Medlineplus Easy-to-Read web site was conducted. This site was chosen because it has the most robust collection of easy-to-read patient education materials on the Internet. Each item was evaluated for grade level using four readability tests. A statistical analysis of the findings took place. This paper will describe this study and the analysis and make some recommendations about easy-to-read patient education materials, the web sites on which they reside, and the relationship to health literacy.
Random Numbers tableAn analysis of 100 print items from the Medlineplus Easy-to-Read web site was conducted. This site was chosen because it has the most robust collection of easy-to-read patient education materials on the Internet. Each item was evaluated for grade level using four readability tests. A statistical analysis of the findings took place. This paper will describe this study and the analysis and make some recommendations about easy-to-read patient education materials, the web sites on which they reside, and the relationship to health literacy.
Random Numbers table
9. In WORD – tools -> Options -> Spelling & Grammar tab
Select the “Check Grammar with Spelling” check box
Select the “Show Readability Statistics” check box
Click OK
Click “Spelling and Grammar” on Standard toolbar
In WORD – tools -> Options -> Spelling & Grammar tab
Select the “Check Grammar with Spelling” check box
Select the “Show Readability Statistics” check box
Click OK
Click “Spelling and Grammar” on Standard toolbar
10. Gunning – Fog Index Calculate the average number
of words you use per sentence.
Calculate the percentage of
difficult words in the sample
(words with three or more syllables).
Add the totals together, and
multiply the sum by 0.4.
Algorithm: (average_words_sentence + number_words_three_syllables_plus) * 0.4
11. Gettyburg Address = 13.8th gradeGettyburg Address = 13.8th grade
12. Fry Randomly select three 100-word
passages from a book or an article.
Plot the average number of syllables
and the average number of sentences
per 100 words on the graph to determine
the grade level of the material.
Choose more passages per book if great
variability is observed and conclude that
the book has uneven readability.
Few books will fall into the solid black area,
but when they do, grade level scores are invalid.
14. SMOG Count 10 sentences in a row near
the beginning of your material.
Count 10 sentences in the middle.
Count 10 sentences near the end.
(30 total sentences)
Count every word with three or
more syllables in each group of
sentences, even if the same word
appears more than once.
Add the total number of words
counted. Use the SMOG Conversion
Table I to find the grade level.
15. Gettyburg = 10.55 grade levelGettyburg = 10.55 grade level
16. Descriptive Statistics
21. 3 out of 4 Test Data Do not meet assumption of a Normal Distribution:
Fry (p<.01), Fog (p<.01), & Smog (p<.05);
But NOT SEVERE DEVIATIONS
3 out of 4 Test Data Do not meet assumption of a Normal Distribution:
Fry (p<.01), Fog (p<.01), & Smog (p<.05);
But NOT SEVERE DEVIATIONS
22. Conclusions Flesch-Kincaid Grade level
provided the “best” results
Web sites claiming to provide
“easy-to-read” materials may
not be doing so
Define “Easy-to-Read” on web site