ArticleJournal of patient experience2021
Readability of Patient Education Materials From High-Impact Medical Journals: A 20-Year Analysis.
Article in Journal of patient experience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 187 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
187 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A systematic review of patient decision aids for hypertension.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2026Pooled it
- The effects of multimedia education tools on patients' health knowledge.British journal of community nursing · 2026Pooled it
- Comparison of the readability of ChatGPT and Bard in medical communication: a meta-analysis.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2025Pooled it
- Systematic review of effectiveness and quality assessment of patient education materials and decision aids for breathlessness.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2022Pooled it
- AI-Generated Avatar Videos for Postoperative Patient Education Among Health Care Workers: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR perioperative medicine · 2026Trial
- Assessing perceived empathy based on genetic counselor gender using a randomized, hypothetical prenatal genetic counseling scenario design.Journal of genetic counseling · 2025Trial
- Exploring the determinants of health literacy and its effects on health-related outcomes in family caregivers of patients with cancer.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Trial
- Online Plain Language Tool and Health Information Quality: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Comparative Evaluation of AI Chatbots for Testicular Cancer Education: Validity, Information Quality, and Readability.Annals of surgical oncology · 2026Article
- Health literacy of the Deaf community: a scoping review.Journal of deaf studies and deaf education · 2026Article
- Assessment of AI-Generated Patient Education Materials for Bladder Training and Pelvic Floor Muscle Therapy: Comparison with an International Society Leaflet.International urogynecology journal · 2026Article
- The Impact of Specific Prompt Engineering Techniques on the Readability of LLM-Generated Patient Materials in Gastroenterology and Hepatology.Digestive diseases and sciences · 2026Article
- Comparative Analysis of Report-back of Research Results Strategies for Personal Chemical Exposure Data.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2026Article
- Large language models and artificial intelligence for generating, simplifying, and enhancing outpatient clinic letters: A systematic review.PLOS digital health · 2026Article
- Bridging the Health Literacy Gap for Patients With Oral Cancer: Readability Enhancement With AI Chatbots.Journal of oral pathology & medicine : official publication of the International Association of Oral Pathologists and the American Academy of Oral Pathology · 2026Article
- AI-generated patient information leaflets for oral anticoagulants: quality, usability, readability, and reproducibility compared with FDA-referenced materials.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2026Article
- A Collaborative Approach to Creating Knowledge-Building Resources for the Early-Stage Parkinson's Disease Community.Neurology and therapy · 2026Article
- Optimizing ChatGPT Applying prompt engineering to frequently asked questions in urologic oncology.Canadian Urological Association journal = Journal de l'Association des urologues du Canada · 2026Article
- Patient-facing materials for hip and knee preservation surgery are written well above recommended reading level.Journal of hip preservation surgery · 2026Article
- Tailored Text Messaging Intervention to Improve Self-Care in Patients With Heart Failure (Text4HF): Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
127 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Comprehensive patient education is necessary for shared decision-making. While patient-provider conversations primarily drive patient education, patients also use published materials to enhance their understanding. In this investigation, we evaluated the readability of 2585 patient education materials published in high-impact medical journals from 1998 to 2018 and compared our findings to readability recommendations from national groups. For all materials, mean readability grade levels ranged from 11.2 to 13.8 by various metrics. Fifty-four (2.1%) materials met the American Medical Association recommendation of sixth grade reading level, and 215 (8.2%) met the National Institutes of Health recommendation of eighth grade level. When stratified by journal and material type, general medical education materials from
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.