Health Information and Patient Education
NU525 Week 3
Accessing health information helps people learn more about their health and manage personal care. Digital platforms offer valuable and readily-accessible educational materials for diverse individuals, including health workers and patients (Kher et al., 2017). Although online tools aid in treating health conditions and empowering people with information, some resources are difficult to comprehend and may spread medical misinformation. Healthcare providers utilize readability indexes to predict resource compressibility and complexity, determining whether certain materials are reliable and effective for patient education.
Readability Index and Its Applications
A readability index denotes an estimate that determines the ease or difficulty of reading a text depending on its properties by employing the concepts of text complexity. Calculating this score involves using different textual parameters, including word familiarity, the presence of polysyllabic words, frequency of difficult terms, and sentence length. People use the readability index to measure text difficulty and comprehensibility (Gómez & Lafuente, 2019; Rooney et al., 2021). With the readability score, one can determine website complexity without reading its content. Readability indexes also provide an exact measure of textual understandability (Gómez & Lafuente, 2019). If the readability score is low, readers are likely to experience difficulties comprehending online texts. However, a website with high readability index is easy to read and grasp ideas. A site presenting easy-to-comprehend information is readable and understandable for all patients. Therefore, measuring text comprehensibility and complexity facilitates classifying patient education websites based on their different readability indexes.
Healthcare Providers’ Responsibility in Determining Resource Reliability
Healthcare practitioners are responsible for ascertaining whether a resource is reliable and valid for patient education. They use different rating tools and checklists to evaluate patient education materials. For instance, medical practitioners can utilize the Patient Educational Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) to find the reliability of a resource (Lee et al., 2021). Healthcare professionals use systematic credibility tools and ratings to examine whether certain patient education resources contain understandable, trustworthy, and accurate information. Checking resource reliability enables medical professionals to select quality materials when educating patients and colleagues.
I check ownership, previous research findings, and current date to ascertain website validity and reliability. I believe that institution and government websites are accurate and unbiased. Government-owned sites are famous for being trustworthy and publishing well-known facts. In addition, I use people’s judgments and reviews to access credible patient education websites. People develop research findings by examining quality indicators to offer webpage reliability judgments, suggesting whether an internet resource is reliable and credible (Song et al., 2021). I also utilize copyright and publication dates to explore up-to-date sources. Utilizing websites with updated information helps me understand recent breakthroughs in healthcare and educate patients with current and relevant health education materials.
Patient Education Website
I often utilize the Krames website to educate my colleagues, patients, and families. Medical centers employ Krames to understand medical care and enable patients to engage in healthcare management. This online resource contains standardized information, implying that Krames has a consistent quality and shares the same features with other patient education materials. The content presented on this website is documented in simple terminologies and language to support patient education delivery (Bartoo, 2013). Using understandable, familiar, and easy words enhances Krames’ readability (Rooney et al., 2021). The website also uses medical abbreviations, such as FHIR and EHR, to foster text readability. When incorporated into a resource, acronyms help reduce the unnecessary use of uncommon and difficult terminologies, mitigating bias and enhancing text understandability (Rooney et al., 2021). This factor allows patients to better access and understand health information and share it with their families.
Conclusion
Readability indexes aid people in gauging text comprehensibility. The Krames website is an example of a readable resource because it contains simple terminologies and abbreviations. Credible materials are readable and accurate and include information that meets reliability criteria. To increase readability and reliability, people should incorporate standardized information and familiar words into patient education resources.
References
Bartoo, C. (2013, June 13). New system standardizes patient education materials. Vanderbilt University Medical Center. https://news.vumc.org/2013/06/13/new-system-standardizes-patient-education-materials/
Gómez, P. C., & Lafuente, Á. A. S. (2019). Readability indices for the assessment of textbooks: a feasibility study in the context of EFL. Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics, (16), 31-52. https://revistas.webs.uvigo.es/index.php/vial/article/download/92/92
Kher, A., Johnson, S., & Griffith, R. (2017). Readability assessment of online patient education material on congestive heart failure. Advances in Preventive Medicine, 2017, 1–8. https://www.doi.org/10.1155/2017/9780317
Lee, J. G., Sesay, M., Acevedo, P. A., Chichester, Z. A., & Chaney, B. H. (2021). Practical advice regarding the reliability of the patient educational materials assessment tool for health educators. Health Promotion Practice, 152483992098479. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839920984790
Rooney, M. K., Santiago, G., Perni, S., Horowitz, D. P., McCall, A. R., Einstein, A. J., Jagsi, R., & Golden, D. W. (2021). Readability of patient education materials from high-impact medical journals: A 20-Year analysis. Journal of Patient Experience, 8, 237437352199884. https://doi.org/10.1177/2374373521998847
Song, S., Zhang, Y., & Yu, B. (2021). Interventions to support consumer evaluation of online health information credibility: A scoping review. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 145, 104321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2020.104321