Resumen

AGUILERA, Carolina; PEREZ, Miguel A.  y  ALONSO PALACIO, Luz Marina. Readability of Diabetes Education Materials: Implications for reaching patients with written materials. Salud, Barranquilla [online]. 2010, vol.26, n.1, pp.12-26. ISSN 0120-5552.

Objective: To ascertain the health literacy levels of diabetes patient education materials distributed by government-funded or nonprofit organization. Methods: This descriptive study explored readability levels of 81 written diabetes health education materials available from healthcare providers. The Simplified Measure of Gobbledygoop (SMOG) readability formula and the Fray Graph were utilized to determine readability levels of diabetes patient information materials. The sample size excluded materials not in English and those with commercial purposes. Data analysis included measures of central tendency. In adition used t test and p-value. Results: Results from this study show that while education materials provided by nonprofit organizations are easier to read, they are still generally above the reading level of a large portion of the population they are intended to reach. Conclusion: Results from this study suggest that the majority of diabetes patient education materials are not adequate to reach their intended population due to high readability levels.

Palabras clave : diabete mellitus; health education; health literacy.

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