engleski

Readability of medical advice columns in Croatian monthly health magazine

Many studies on readability have shown that patient information is frequently written at the reading level too high for the average population to understand. Patients often seek medical advice from the media but to act upon any information or advice provided in the written form, it is necessary to adapt these materials to the reading ability of the population. The aim of this study was to determine the reading level of medical advice columns found in one randomly selected Croatian monthly health magazine. Doctor's advice in the form of an answer to a patient's question, written in Croatian language, was tested for readability using the simple measure of gobbledegook (SMOG) formula. The SMOG formula, originally created for English language, was adapted to Croatian language on the basis of core vocabularies of the two languages. The tested materials included a total of 52 medical advice columns of at least 100 words, written by 38 doctors. The reading levels of the tested materials ranged from 10 to 18 (mean 13.58), which showed that these materials would be too difficult to read for at least 70% of the Croatian adult population, and that more than 70% of the tested medical advice columns was written at the college or university reading level. The obtained results indicate to a need of revision of the written texts prepared for the average patient population. Policies are needed to influence the Croatian authors of patient information materials to avoid complex writing in their efforts of achieving effective communication.

readability; patient information; SMOG

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