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Consent Forms, Readability, and Comprehension: The Need for New Assessment Tools

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2021

Wendy K. Mariner  and
Patricia A. McArdle
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Extract

Recent efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of the informed consent process between physician and patient have focused on the ability of patients to understand written “informed consent” documents. Several researchers, employing traditional readability formulas to measure the reading level of such documents, have noted that many of these forms are written at a level too difficult for most people to understand. Readability formulas, such as those of Flesch and Fry, and the SMOG formula, have become convenient measures of the effectiveness of informed consent documents in conveying information to patients to enable them to make decisions about recommended therapies.

Our experience, in a pilot study, with readability formulas to test an informed consent document used in childhood poliomyelitis immunizations led us to conclude that readability formulas are an inadequate measure of patients’ comprehension of written information about medical procedures.

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , April 1985 , pp. 68 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1985

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References

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