It discourages information seeking and damages self-efficacy. Health information providers are compelled to evaluate materials and oral instructions intended to aid learning by patients and consumers. But readability is a deal breaker. When material exceeds the reading skills of intended learners, other factors in comprehension become largely irrelevant. That makes readability testing a good first step in evaluating health information.
Different formulas produce different scores for the same sample of text.
The newest addition to the Evaluating Materials section of the PrenatalEd site is a review article that suggests steps to make readability testing easy and meaningful. It investigates the origins and intended uses of nine popular computerized and hand-calculated readability tests. There are links to online resources and aids, and references for testing in languages other than English. All involved with Beginnings committed to research and evaluation to continuously improve the quality of our materials and to presenting our research findings in order to promote evidence based health education. The poster session will be posted to this site after the presentation.