Critical Review of Patient Education Materials From the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

We performed an expanded readability analysis to determine if the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) had sufficiently improved its patient education materials since they were originally studied in 2007.

In March 2013, we downloaded patient education materials from the AAOS patient information website, Your Orthopaedic Connection. Using 10 different readability formulas, we found that the mean grade level of patient education materials on the website is 8.84. Flesch-Kincaid analysis showed a mean grade level of 9.98 (range, 6.6-12.6). Nine other readability analyses showed a mean reading level of 7.7 (range, 6.5-13.7). Although this is an improvement over the 2007 level, it is above the average national reading comprehension level.

The readability of patient education materials on the AAOS website still exceeds the average reading ability of a US adult. Revisions made over the 5 years leading up to this latest study resulted in better readability. The Prevention & Safety entries, written near seventh-grade level, should serve as a model for the remaining articles.