[Informative Texts for Rehabilitation Patients are Difficult to Understand]

Abstract

Objective: To check the intelligibility of informational texts written for rehabilitation patients.

Method: Most investigated texts came from rehabilitation providers, patient organizations and health portals (8 texts), and from 50 rehabilitation facilities for musculoskeletal conditions (145 texts). We added a self-written booklet in plain language. All texts dealt with the goals and substance of rehabilitation. Readability formulas were computed for each text, and the Hamburg approach to intelligibility was applied.

Results: Only highly educated people will find the documents easily to understand, except for our self-written booklet, which is also comprehensible to lower secondary school leavers.

Conclusion: The informational texts are of little help for people who are undecided whether or not to participate in rehabilitative measures and for rehab patients in preparatory stages. Issuing organizations are overburdened with the task of wording in a comprehensible manner, and should consider seeking assistance by professional writers or providing training for their staff.