Research done over many years shows a steady problem. More than half of adults in the United States have limited reading skills. But most patient education materials are written at or above a tenth-grade reading level. Experts say these materials should be written between sixth and eighth grades so more patients can understand them.
Reviews from 1990 to 2022 show that the readability of patient materials has not gotten better. Most of them are still harder to read than recommended, especially the longer documents.
A review that looked at 24 other reviews studied nearly 30,000 patient education materials from many medical fields. These materials, covering more than 30 years, often go beyond the suggested reading level. This makes it hard for many patients to get what they mean. It shows a gap between what healthcare providers write and what patients can understand, especially those with lower health literacy.
Doctors and healthcare groups often must provide detailed education to explain medical problems, treatment plans, or care instructions. Shorter papers like patient letters have seen better readability when guidelines are used. But longer papers are much harder to simplify.
There are several reasons for this difficulty:
Tools like the Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit, made by experts including Brega AG and Weiss BD, have helped make shorter documents easier to read. The toolkit has a part called Tool 11 that gives rules for designing easy-to-read materials. Studies in four primary care places showed this toolkit made shorter papers like letters easier to read and understand. But it did not help longer patient education materials much over six months.
Readability formulas like Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, and SMOG check what grade level is needed to understand texts. They look at sentence length and word difficulty. But they have limits. They do not check for cultural fit, how the document is organized, or how good the design is. These things are also important for understanding. So, materials might get good scores but still be hard for patients to use well.
Tools from groups like the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest testing with real patients. This means interviews and group talks to see if patients understand and like the materials before finishing them. But this is hard to do for long materials because it costs a lot and takes much effort. Many groups skip this step.
Not giving patients easy-to-read materials is more than a small problem. It can affect health results. Patients who do not understand their diagnosis, treatment, or medicines might not follow medical advice well. This can cause bad health events, new hospital visits, or uncontrolled long-term illness. Hard-to-read materials also lower patient involvement in their care and can cause more doctor or emergency room visits.
Healthcare workers and managers often know these risks but find it hard to fix the problem. Most long patient education materials are still too hard for patients, especially those with low reading skills or who do not speak English well. This limits how much patient education can help.
AI systems can look at large amounts of text and suggest ways to make it easier to read, based on health literacy rules. Using natural language processing (NLP), AI can:
For example, AI tools built into content management systems can check long patient papers and give advice on how to simplify them. This lowers the work needed by staff who usually edit materials by hand.
Healthcare IT managers and administrators can use workflow automation to make reviewing and updating patient materials easier. Automated workflows can:
By automating these tasks, healthcare groups can let staff focus on more important jobs like talking to patients, checking content, and planning communication.
Some companies, like Simbo AI, work on automating front-office phone calls, which can also help with patient education. AI-powered phone systems can:
This improves how healthcare talks to patients by voice, not just written materials. Using both voice and text can help make up for some hard-to-read long papers.
Using AI and automation in patient education can bring many benefits for medical practices:
Also, as more healthcare groups use AI, they can learn from each other and improve patient education more over time.
Healthcare systems in the U.S. face some special problems that affect patient materials. Many adults here have limited reading skills, so they find current education materials hard. The U.S. is also very culturally diverse. Patient papers need to fit many cultures and be in several languages, which makes designing materials harder.
Medical managers must follow federal rules like the Plain Language Writing Act of 2010. This rule says federal agencies and some healthcare groups must use clear communication. But even with this knowledge, long documents are not well done.
IT managers can help by setting up systems that use AI and automated tools to check health literacy. They should make sure electronic health records (EHR) and patient portals can show patient education materials in easy-to-use ways.
Practice owners decide how to spend money and set plans. They should put funds into health literacy projects, including buying AI technology and training staff. This can help improve care quality and get patients more involved in their health.
Making patient education materials easier to read is very important for better health results in the U.S. Long documents are harder to improve than short ones. New tools like AI and workflow automation can help medical managers, owners, and IT staff deal with these problems. Using these tools along with basic health literacy rules can close gaps in communication and help patients manage their health more effectively.
The Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit is a resource designed to improve the effectiveness of patient education materials by ensuring they are understandable and actionable, addressing the often high reading levels of such materials.
Interviews indicated that primary care practices followed many recommended actions, such as staff training and material assessment, leading to improved readability in brief documents but not in lengthier ones.
Readability affects patients’ ability to comprehend and follow health information, impacting overall healthcare outcomes and patient empowerment.
Revised documents typically had reading levels appropriate for most patients, showing better readability compared to original materials, while longer materials did not show significant improvement.
Practices implemented training, assessed existing readability, and developed or revised materials focusing on shorter documents to enhance effectiveness.
The study noted that longer patient education materials remained largely ineffective and did not improve in readability or understandability during the implementation period.
Engaging multiple stakeholders, including healthcare providers and patients, is crucial for ensuring the materials meet the needs and comprehension levels of various patient groups.
The study focused on brief documents like patient letters and information sheets but also included an evaluation of longer educational materials.
Tool 11 of the Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit specifically provides guidance for designing easy-to-read patient materials.
Health literacy is essential for understanding health information and making informed decisions, which ultimately influences patient engagement and health outcomes.
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