Readability levels of health pamphlets distributed in hospitals and health centres in Athens, Greece

Kondilis, Barbara; Akrivos, Patrick D.; Sardi, Thalia A.; Soteriades, Elpidoforos S.; Falagas, Matthew E.

doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2010.05.010

Cited by 22 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…In addition to eHealth literacy, the health literacy of the primary and secondary carers will be assessed using the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire 16 ( HLS-EU-Q16) [ 52 , 53 ]. The long form of the questionnaire consists of 47 questions, whereas there are also two shorter forms, one with 16 and one with 6 questions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Association of Health Literacy and Electronic Health Literacy With Self-Efficacy, Coping, and Caregiving Perceptions Among Carers of People With Dementia: Research Protocol for a Descriptive Correlational Study

Efthymiou¹,

Middleton²,

Charalambous³

et al. 2017

JMIR Res Protoc

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BackgroundIn the last decade, electronic health (eHealth) literacy has attracted the attention of the scientific community, as it is associated with the self-management of patients with chronic diseases and the quality and cost of care. It is estimated that 80% of people with chronic diseases are cared for at home by a family member, friend, or relative. Informal carers are susceptible to physical and mental health problems, as well as social and financial hardships. Nevertheless, there seems to be a research gap in terms of carers’ needs, skills, and available resources in the age of new technologies, with the vital role of eHealth literacy of the carers remaining unexplored.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the level of eHealth literacy and health literacy of primary and secondary carers of people with dementia, to explore the association between health and eHealth literacy, as well as their association with the caregiving variables: self-efficacy, coping, and caring perceptions.MethodsA sample of 200 primary carers (the carer who supports the people with dementia in everyday living) and 200 secondary carers (family member, friend, or other person in the social network assisting the primary carer in their role) will be recruited from dementia day care centers and Alzheimer’s associations in Greece and Cyprus. The study will be a cross-sectional correlational descriptive study. Tools to be used include the eHealth Literacy Scale adapted for carers to measure eHealth literacy, European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire 16 (HLS-EU-Q16), Single Item Literacy Screener, Revised Scale for Caregiving Self-Efficacy, Carers of Older People in Europe (COPE) index for caregiving perceptions, and COPE brief to measure selected coping strategies. Descriptive statistics will be reported, and correlations between different variables will be explored with parametric and nonparametric measures.ResultsAs a preliminary study, the HLS-EU-Q16 has been validated in 107 older people. The internal consistency of the scale as estimated using Cronbach alpha coefficient was .77, somewhat lower than other validation studies. Recruitment of pilot study participants started in May 2017.ConclusionsCarers’ eHealth literacy is a new field. Whereas previous studies have focused on the role and impact of low eHealth literacy and health literacy among older adults, the eHealth literacy of carers, and in fact carers of people with dementia, has not been explored. We hypothesize an association between eHealth literacy and health literacy level with carers’ perceptions about caregiving role, self-efficacy, and coping strategies. A possible moderator in these associations is the secondary carers’ eHealth and health literacy level, which will also be explored. By confirming the above hypotheses, tailored eHealth literacy interventions for carers of people with dementia and their families will be developed as a direct outcome of this research.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Association of Health Literacy and Electronic Health Literacy With Self-Efficacy, Coping, and Caregiving Perceptions Among Carers of People With Dementia: Research Protocol for a Descriptive Correlational Study

Efthymiou¹,

Middleton²,

Charalambous³

et al. 2017

JMIR Res Protoc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Disease prevention materials are part of health promotion strategies to improve health literacy and access to care [33]. Carefully selected information and educational materials can have a positive effect on patients' health literacy, risk behaviors, and in turn, on clinical outcomes [34,35].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Web-Based Physician is Ready to See You: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Survey of Physicians Using a Mobile Medical App to Evaluate Patients With Sexually Transmitted Diseases in China (Preprint)

Cao¹,

Zhao²,

Bien-Gund³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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“…The four tests use a combination of word complexity, polysyllabic word count, character count, and sentence length to calculate the readability of a piece of text, with the specific formulas utilised in each test presented in Table 1. These four readability tests were chosen to undertake this analysis because they are among the most commonly used and well-known readability formulas (Kondilis et al, 2010, Svider et al, 2013, Kugar et al, 2017. Specifically, the Flesch Reading Ease test was selected because of its accuracy and simplicity (Kondilis et al, 2010, Rudd, 2010; the SMOG Grade test is both widely used and considered to be a very reliable instrument of measuring readability (Best et al, 2015, Kondilis et al, 2010, Rudd, 2010, Fitzsimmons et al, 2010, Hedman, 2008 and has been found to be consistent performance-wise (Wang et al, 2013).…”

Section: The Readability Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘To be understood as to understand’: A readability analysis of public library acceptable use policies

Robinson

McMenemy

2019

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

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Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) are documents stating the limitations users must agree to when first accessing information and communications technologies (ICTs) in organisations, such as employers, educational institutions and public libraries. AUPs lay out the parameters of acceptable use expected of someone accessing the ICT services provided, and should state in clear and understandable terms what behaviours will attract sanctions, both legal and in terms of restricting future access. Utilising a range of standard readability tests used to measure how understandable documents are, the paper investigates how readable the AUPs presented to public library patrons in the UK are in practice. Of the 206 AUPs in use across the local government departments who manage public library services 200 were obtained and subjected to a range of readability testing procedures. Four readability tests were used for analysis: the Flesch Reading Ease, the Coleman-Liau Index, the Gunning Fog Index and the SMOG Grade. Results for all four readability tests administered on all AUPs raise significant questions. For the Flesch Reading Ease score only 5.5% of AUPs scored at the standard readability level or higher (60+), and 8% scored at a very high level of difficulty akin to a piece of scientific writing. Similarly, for SMOG, only 7.5% of the 200 AUPs scored at the recommended level of 10. Likewise, very few AUPs scored at levels recommended for a general audience with either the Gunning Fog Index (11.5%) or the Coleman-Liau Index (2%). With such variability in readability, the fitness for purpose of the average AUP as a contract patrons must agree to can be called into question. This paper presents the first ever analysis of the readability of library AUPs in the literature. Recommendations are made as to how public library services may improve this aspect of practice.

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Readability levels of health pamphlets distributed in hospitals and health centres in Athens, Greece

Cited by 22 publications

References 16 publications

The Association of Health Literacy and Electronic Health Literacy With Self-Efficacy, Coping, and Caregiving Perceptions Among Carers of People With Dementia: Research Protocol for a Descriptive Correlational Study

The Association of Health Literacy and Electronic Health Literacy With Self-Efficacy, Coping, and Caregiving Perceptions Among Carers of People With Dementia: Research Protocol for a Descriptive Correlational Study

The Web-Based Physician is Ready to See You: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Survey of Physicians Using a Mobile Medical App to Evaluate Patients With Sexually Transmitted Diseases in China (Preprint)

‘To be understood as to understand’: A readability analysis of public library acceptable use policies

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