Readability Assessment of Online Uveitis Patient Education Materials

Purpose: To evaluate the readability of online uveitis patient education materials.Methods: A Google search in November 2016 was completed using search term “uveitis” and “uveitis inflammation.” The top 50 websites with patient-centered information were selected and analyzed for readability using the Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Gunning FOG Index (GFI), and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG). Statistical analysis was performed with two-tailed t-tests.Results: The mean word count of the top 50 websites was 1162.7 words, and averaged 16.2 words per sentence. For these websites, the mean FRES was 38.0 (range 4–66, SD = 12.0), mean FKGL was 12.3 (range 6.8–19, SD = 2.4), mean SMOG score was 14.4 (range 9.8–19, SD = 1.8), and the mean Gunning FOG index was 14.0 (range 8.6–19, SD = 2.0).Conclusions: The majority of online patient directed uveitis materials are at a higher reading level than that of the average American adult.