A Descriptive Study Evaluating the Readability of Consumer Medication

Introduction: One-third of American adults have basic health literacy and will need simple and plain consumer medication information to help them take medications appropriately. It is recommended for patient education materials to be written at the sixth-grade level, especially for individuals with limited health literacy. Unfortunately, consumer medication information from different resources can be written at different reading levels and may be written at levels above the recommended sixth-grade level. This study measured the readability of medication information from tertiary resources, private sectors, and consumer health websites. Materials and Method: The SMOG readability formula was used to assess the readability of different samples of consumer medication information. Results: Readability was assessed for a total of 56 individual leaflets or sets of medication information. Overall, the mean SMOG grade for all consumer medication information evaluated in this study was the 12th grade (range from grade 6 – 17). The most frequent grade calculated was the 12th grade. Discussion: Results from our study demonstrate that most available consumer medication information from tertiary resources, private sectors, and consumer health websites are written well above the recommended reading level. Conclusion: Future efforts should be taken to improve the readability of consumer medication information.