Evaluation of readability and accuracy of information leaflets in general practice for patients with asthma
Helen Elizabeth Smith, S. Gooding, Richard Brown, Anthony J. Frew · BMJ · 1998
Printed education materials are often used to augment healthcare professionals' verbal information to patients. Asthma is one of the commonest chronic diseases managed in general practice, and many leaflets have been produced on its diagnosis, prognosis, management, and treatment, but these have been subjected to little critical review. We evaluated the readability and accuracy of patient information leaflets available in general practice for asthmatic patients. We invited 70 general practices from the Wessex Research Network to send one copy of each of the leaflets they had on asthma: 168 different leaflets were received from 49 practices. We reviewed the leaflets for readability using the simple measure of gobbledegook (SMOG) formula, which estimates the level of education required to understand the text.1 AF reviewed the leaflets for congruency with current British Thoracic Society guidelines2> and accuracy in other areas. The reading grade for these publications ranged from …