Current laryngectomy-related patient education materials are too difficult for an average adult to understand

A recent study by Wong and colleagues from the Boston University Medical Center found that current laryngectomy-related patient education materials are too difficult for an average American adult to understand.

The authors evaluated laryngectomy-related educational materials from an online search using the validated Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool, calculated reading difficulty, and assessed the correlation between readability, understand-ability, and action ability.

The authors concluded that current laryngectomy-related patient education materials are highly variable in understandability and action ability, and reading difficulty across all formulas also exceeded the eighth-grade reading level of an average American adult.They suggested that future revisions of laryngectomy-related educational materials may be warranted in order for current materials to benefit a wider readership.