Purpose Patient education materials (PEMs) enhance healthcare access and inclusivity, particularly for individuals without clinical backgrounds. However, many PEMs exceed recommended readability levels. This study evaluated whether artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted editing using ChatGPT-4o (OpenAI, San Francisco, CA, USA) could improve the readability of endourology PEMs related to prostate cancer, nephrolithiasis, bladder cancer, and kidney cysts. Methods Twenty-one publicly available PEMs from the American Urological Association (AUA) were analyzed. Each document was uploaded into ChatGPT-4o with instructions to rewrite the text to an eighth-grade reading level or lower while preserving content and word count. Readability of original and AI-modified PEMs was assessed using ReadabilityFormulas.com across six validated indices: Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), Gunning-Fog Index (GFI), Coleman-Liau Index (CLI), Automated Readability Index (ARI), and Flesch Reading Ease (FRE). Pre- and post-AI readability scores were compared using paired two-tailed t-tests. Results Across all indices and disease categories, AI modification significantly improved readability. Unmodified PEMs were written at approximately the ninth to 11th grade level, whereas AI-modified versions were reduced to the fourth to sixth grade range (p < 0.001 for all comparisons). AI-modified PEMs also demonstrated reduced variability across readability scores, indicating improved standardization. Conclusions ChatGPT-4o significantly improved the readability of AUA endourology PEMs, aligning them with established health literacy recommendations. AI-assisted editing represents a scalable and standardized approach to improving patient comprehension and accessibility of urologic education materials.
Othman et al. (Fri,) studied this question.