Readability of patient education materials is of utmost importance to ensure understandability and dissemination of health care information in uro-oncology. We aimed to investigate the readability of the official patient education materials of the European Association of Urology (EAU) and American Urology Association (AUA).
Patient education materials for prostate, bladder, kidney, testicular, penile, and urethral cancers were retrieved from the respective organizations. Readability was assessed via the WebFX online tool for Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease Score (FRES) and for reading grade levels by Flesch Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Gunning Fog Score (GFS), Smog Index (SI), Coleman Liau Index (CLI), and Automated Readability Index (ARI). Layperson readability was defined as a FRES of ≥70 and with the other readability indexes <7 according to European Union recommendations. This study assessed only objective readability and no other metrics such as understandability.
Most patient education materials failed to meet the recommended threshold for laypersons. The mean readability for EAU patient education material was as follows: FRES 50.9 (standard error [SE]: 3.0), and FKGL, GFS, SI, CLI, and ARI all with scores ≥7. The mean readability for AUA patient material was as follows: FRES 64.0 (SE: 1.4), with all of FKGL, GFS, SI, and ARI scoring ≥7 readability. Only 13 out of 70 (18.6%) patient education materials' paragraphs met the readability requirements. The mean readability for bladder cancer patient education materials was the lowest, with a FRES of 36.7 (SE: 4.1).
Patient education materials from leading urological associations reveal readability levels beyond the recommended thresholds for laypersons and may not be understood easily by patients. There is a future need for more patient-friendly reading materials.
This study checked whether health information about different cancers was easy to read. Most of it was too hard for patients to understand.
European urology focus. 2024 Jul 23 [Epub ahead of print]
Severin Rodler, Serena Maruccia, Andre Abreu, Declan Murphy, David Canes, Stacy Loeb, Rena D Malik, Aditya Bagrodia, Giovanni E Cacciamani
USC Institute of Urology and Catherine and Joseph Aresty Department of Urology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Artificial Intelligence Center at USC Urology, USC Institute of Urology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Urology, University Hospital of LMU Munich, Munich, Germany., Department of Urology, ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, San Paolo Hospital, Milano, Italy., USC Institute of Urology and Catherine and Joseph Aresty Department of Urology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Artificial Intelligence Center at USC Urology, USC Institute of Urology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA., Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia., Division of Urology, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, Burlington, MA, USA., Department of Urology and Population Health, New York University and Manhattan Veterans Affairs, New York, NY, USA., Division of Urology, Long Beach VA Hospital in Long Beach, CA, USA., Department of Urology, University of California-San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, USA; Department of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA., USC Institute of Urology and Catherine and Joseph Aresty Department of Urology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Artificial Intelligence Center at USC Urology, USC Institute of Urology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: .