ArticleApplied radiation oncology2018
RTAnswers Online Patient Education Materials Deviate From Recommended Reading Levels.
Article in Applied radiation oncology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivePatients are turning to the Internet more often for cancer-related information. Oncology organizations need to ensure that appropriately written information is available for patients online. The aim of this study was to determine whether the readability of radiation oncology online patient information (OPI) provided by RTAnswers (RTAnswers.org, created by the American Society for Radiation Oncology) is written at a sixth-grade level as recommended by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the American Medical Association (AMA).
methodsRTanswers.org was accessed and online patient-oriented brochures for 13 specific disease sites were analyzed. Readability of OPI from RTAnswers was assessed using 10 common readability tests: New Dale-Chall Test, Flesch Reading Ease Score, Coleman-Liau Index, Flesch-Kinkaid Grade Level, FORCAST test, Fry Score, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, Gunning Frequency of Gobbledygook, New Fog Count, and Raygor Readability Estimate.
resultsA composite grade level of readability was constructed using the 8 readability measures that provide a single grade-level output. The grade levels computed by each of these 8 tests were highly correlated (SI alpha = 0.98). The composite grade level for these disease site-specific brochures was 11.6 ± 0.83, corresponding to a senior in high school, significantly higher than the target sixth-grade level (p < 0.05) recommended by the NIH, HHS, and AMA.
conclusionPatient educational material provided by RTAnswers.org is written significantly above the target reading level. Simplifying and rewording this information could improve patients' understanding of radiation therapy and improve treatment adherence and outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
34169120PMC8221236What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.