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.

The rise of medical training in Portuguese speaking African countries.

BACKGROUND: Medical training has shown to be strategic for strengthening health systems, especially in those countries identified to have critical shortage of human resources for health. In the past few years, several studies have been conducted to characterize and identify major challenges faced by medical schools worldwide, and particularly in Africa. Nevertheless, none has previously addressed medical training issues in Portuguese Speaking African Countries (PSAC). The aim of this study was to establish baseline knowledge of the PSAC's medical schools in terms of creation and ownership, programmes offered, applicants and registered students, barriers to increased intake of students, teaching workforce and available resources. METHODS: A quantitative, observational, multicentric, cross-sectional study of all medical schools active in 2012 in the PSAC. An adapted version of the questionnaires developed by Chen et al. (2012) was sent to all medical schools electronically. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: A total of nine medical schools answered the questionnaire (three from Angola, two from Guinea Bissau and four from Mozambique). Since 2006 an effort has been made to increase the number of medical trainees. Besides the medical degree offered by all schools, some offered other undergraduate and postgraduate training programmes. The number of applicants to medical schools largely outnumbers the available vacancies in all countries but insufficient infrastructures and lack of teaching personnel are important constraints to increase vacancies. The teaching personnel are mainly trained abroad, employed part-time by the medical school and do not have a PhD qualification. CONCLUSION: Governments in the PSAC have significantly invested in training to address medical shortages. However, medical schools are still struggling to give an adequate and effective response. Developing a local postgraduate training capacity for doctors might be an important strategy to help retain medical doctors in the home country and develop local faculty capacity.

Cost effectiveness of changing health professionals' behavior: training dental hygienists in brief interventions for smokeless tobacco cessation.

OBJECTIVE: Disseminating effective interventions to health care professionals is a critical step in ensuring that patients receive needed advice and materials. This cost effectiveness analysis compared two methods of disseminating an effective protocol for smokeless tobacco cessation intervention. METHOD: Interested dental hygienists (N = 1051) were recruited in 20 Western and Midwestern U.S. communities and randomized by community to receive workshop training, self-study with mailed materials, and delayed self-study training, in 1996-98. Hygienists were surveyed about their smokeless tobacco-related activities with patients at baseline and post-intervention. Data on intervention costs were collected, and incremental costs per unit of behavior change were calculated. RESULTS: Self-study was more cost effective than workshop training under a wide range of assumptions: change in group versus individual behavior, hygienists' time and travel costs included or excluded, and hygienist wage rates at the national median or substantially lower. However, workshops may be as cost effective in producing behavior change among hygienists earning wages substantially higher than the national median. CONCLUSION: Self-study may be a more cost effective method than workshops to achieve behavior change among motivated health professionals.

The readability of American Academy of Pediatrics patient education brochures.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the readability of American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) patient education brochures. METHOD: Seventy-four brochures were analyzed using two readability formulas. RESULTS: Mean readability for all 74 brochures was grade 7.94 using the Flesch-Kincaid formula, and grade 10.1 with SMOG formula (P = .001). Using the SMOG formula, no brochures were of acceptably low (< or =8th grade) readability levels (range 8.3 to 12.7). Using the Flesch-Kincaid formula, 41 of the 74 had acceptable readability levels (< or =8th grade). The SMOG formula routinely assessed brochures 2 to 3 grade levels higher than did the Flesch-Kincaid formula. DISCUSSION: Some AAP patient education brochures have acceptably low levels of readability, but at least half are written at higher than acceptable readability levels for the general public. This study also demonstrated statistically significant variability between the two different readability formulas; had only the SMOG formula been used, all of the brochures would have had unacceptably high readability levels. Readability is an essential concept for patient education materials. Professional associations that develop and market patient education materials should test for readability and publish those readability levels on each piece of patient education so health care providers will know if the materials are appropriate for their patients.

[Evaluation of quality and accessibility of health education materials. II. The opinion of patients]. / Ocena jakosci i dostepnosci materialow edukacyjnych o zdrowiu. II. Opinie pacjentów.

The study on quality and accessibility of educational materials for patients was taken up in Health Promotion Department of the National Institute of Hygiene and the Mazovian Centre of Public Health in 2003. The questionnaire contained demographic information (gender, age, civil state, residence, employment and level of education), and questions about patients' opinions concerning the sources of health information (usefulness for knowledge enlargement, use in everyday life and perceived truth). The data were obtained from 110 patients living in Warsaw, who waited for visit in dispensaries or had treated in hospitals. The patients pointed television (54.5% of respondents), members of family (50.9%), physician or nurse in the course of consultations (48.2%), journals (46.4%) and friends (43.6%) as the sources, which most frequently provided health information. Women significantly more frequently than men acquired health information from journals (respectively: 53.8% and 26.7%), while men more frequently than women received health information from physicians or nurses in course of visits (respectively: 66.7% and 41.3%). As regards to age, the younger patients significantly more frequently acquired health information from family (younger group--61.2%, medium group--37.9%, elder group - 28,2%), friends (respectively: 55.2%, 27.2%, 21.4%) and from educational materials exposed in specific dispensaries (respectively: 44.8%, 17.2%, 14.3%). The elder patients more frequently received health information from physicians or nurses in course of consultations (elder group--85.7%, medium group--62.1%, younger group--34.3%). In comparison with other sources, the highest percentage of respondents assessed health information received from physician or nurse as very useful for enlargement their knowledge, use in their everyday life and very true, however, this percentage is low (respectively: 29.0%, 25.7% and 46.7%). Our findings confirm the need to elaborate health education materials more adequate to patients' expectations.

Assessment of the Mission Nutrition nutrition education program.

In 1998, Dietitians of Canada and the team of registered dietitians at Kellogg Canada Inc. partnered to develop Mission Nutrition, a national bilingual nutrition education program that provides curriculum-based resources to teachers. The main objectives of this study were to measure the awareness and utility of the Mission Nutrition program among elementary teachers, and to identify opportunities to enhance the Mission Nutrition resources to increase use. A ten-minute telephone survey was conducted with a representative sample of 203 elementary school teachers. A sub-sample of 20 teachers then participated in a more in-depth 30-minute telephone survey. A need for increased promotion of the Mission Nutrition program was identified on the basis of the 22% awareness among teachers participating in the initial interview. All teachers who had used the educator guides and student activity sheets reported that they would use them again. Teachers found that the Mission Nutrition materials were well-researched and contained useful activities relevant to students. The findings indicate that, to be most effective, nutrition education resources should be provided in a ready-to-use format and integrated with core curricula. Teachers also suggested that materials should include fresh ideas to engage students at different grade levels, and ways to involve parents. Dietitians are ideally positioned to work collaboratively with educators to develop these types of nutrition education resources.

Determinación de necesidades y programas de capacitación en hospitales docentes / Determination of needs and programmes of trainning on docents hospitals

Estudio que se realiza para identificar las necesidades de formación de los recursos humanso con responsabilidadades gerenciales en el campo de la Salud Pública que permita orientar el proceso de estructuración de curriculums que se adecuen a estas necesidades, tomando como referencia las alternativas de oferta de la institución educativa

Review and needs assessment of materials designed to prevent tobacco use.

Over the past 25 years, numerous educational materials and strategies have been developed for the prevention and control of tobacco use. However, there has been no comprehensive assessment of the available materials designed to educate the public to avoid the use of tobacco. A search for materials and a review process was conducted in the fall of 1993, and a panel of experts reviewed the materials that were collected. In conducting the search, 240 persons and organizations associated with tobacco control efforts across the United States were contacted, and 207 materials were identified and evaluated. All materials were assessed by at least two members of the expert panel. Of the 207 items, 188 were found to be acceptable according to standardized review criteria. The authors drew conclusions about the current availability of tobacco use prevention materials and present recommendations for increasing the availability of materials to community-level and other control programs.