CHARACTERISTICS OF OLDER MEN AND THEIR ABILITY TO COMPREHEND PRINTED HEALTH EDUCATION MATERIALS.
Contributors: University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 173
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Health.
Description: Orem's self-care theory of nursing formed the basis of a descriptive study which was conducted to identify the demographic characteristics of older men that relate to their ability to comprehend printed health education materials as measured by cloze tests. Subjects consisted of a convenience sample of clients attending a hypertension clinic associated with a Veterans Administration medical center in a large city in the southeast United States. All subjects were men, 55 years of age or older, and had a history of hypertension.

Cloze tests were created on two items of text about hypertension. The SMOG readability formula was developed by McLaughlin (1969) was applied to each text before the tests were created. The first text was extracted from a brochure published by the American Heart Association and was written at the 12th grade level as determined by the SMOG readability formula. The second test which was developed by the investigator was written at the sixth grade level as determined by the SMOG readability formula.

Data were analyzed by means of multiple regression analysis and one-way analysis of variance. Conclusions drawn from the study were that achieved grade level of education, current grade level of reading ability, current choice of reading materials, and race are reliable predictors of the ability of older men to comprehend printed health education materials as measured by the cloze tests.

Recommendations for further study include the use of cloze tests created for items relating to other health problems. In addition, it is recommended that similar studies be conducted in different areas of the country.

Application of the findings of this study must be restricted to the population from which the sample was drawn. It also must be noted that the sample was probably not representative of the entire population of the clinic due to the concurrent discharge of large numbers of veterans from the clinic during data collection.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-04, Section: B, page: 1088.

Thesis (D.S.N.)--UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM, 1987.

School code: 0005.