But if individuals are looking up medical materials, they likely may need such assistance, according to a recent University of Iowa study. They don't want to turn to a dictionary to decipher what they are reading on any particular site. But if individuals are looking up medical materials, they likely may need such assistance, according to a recent University of Iowa study. Researchers led by Mark Graber, M.D., UI associate professor of family medicine and surgery, found that much of the medical information on the Web geared towards the general public is written at a reading level higher than is easily understood by much of the patient population. Although the reading ability of patients varies widely, one previous study of patients with diabetes found that 60 percent of the patients could comprehend information written for a sixth grader while only 21 percent could understand material written at a ninth-grade level.
Patient education is important.
The more information patients have, the more they can participate in their health care. But when patients cannot understand the information, they can become frustrated or misinterpret the information and make wrong medical decisions as a result. Graber is the first person to evaluate the readability of patient education materials on the Web. One estimate revealed that there are currently 87 million regular Web users in North America. In addition, doctors are beginning to use the Web as a source of information for all patients, printing out materials from various sites.