An Analysis of the Readability of Educational Materials on the Consumer Webpage of a Health Professional Organization: Considerations for Practice

Context: The readability level of many patient education materials is health at risk. Since health professionals often recommend Internet the readabi lity of information provided to consumers is at an appropriate level. determine the readability of educational brochures found on the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) consumer website. Methods: Fourteen educational brochures on the APTA website in March 2008 were analyzed using the following assessments: Flesch8Kincaid Grade Level, Flesch Reading Ease, Fry Readability Formula, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), Checklist for Patient Education Materia the Flesch8Kincaid and Flesch Reading Ease, over 90% of the brochures were written at greater than a sixth grade level. The