Readability assessment of online patient education materials from academic otolaryngology–head and neck surgery departments

PurposeThe aim of this study was to compare the readability of online patient education materials among academic otolaryngology departments in the mid-Atlantic region, with the purpose of determining whether these commonly used online resources were written at a level readily understood by the average American.MethodsA readability analysis of online patient education materials was performed using several commonly used readability assessments including the Flesch Reading Ease Score, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, Gunning Frequency of Gobbledygook, the New Dale-Chall Test, the Coleman-Liau Index, the New Fog Count, the Raygor Readability Estimate, the FORCAST test, and the Fry Graph.ResultsMost patient education materials from these programs were written at or above an 11th grade reading level, considerably above National Institutes of Health guidelines for recommended difficulty.ConclusionsPatient educational materials from academic otolaryngology Web sites are written at too difficult a reading level for a significant portion of patients and can be simplified.