Munise YİLDİZ, Betul KOZANHAN, Mahmut Sami TUTAR

Assessment of readability level of informed consent forms used in intensive care units

Informed consent forms are printed forms prepared to assist patients in the treatment process by explaining the indications, benefits and possible risks of medical practices. Readability describes understanding difficulty and is calculated by mathematical formulas. The study aimed to assess the readability level of “Informed Consent Forms” used in intensive care units. The informed consent forms from 45 hospitals in our country have been gathered. In each average form number of words, the average number of syllables and the average number of words with 4 or more syllables were manually calculated using the “Microsoft Office Excel 2016®” program. Their readability levels have been assessed with Atesman and Bezirci-Yılmaz readability formulas. The readability level of forms was “difficult” according to the Atesman readability formula and at “undergraduate level” according to the Bezirci-Yilmaz readability formula. The readability level of forms used in private hospitals was found to be significantly lower than that used in state and university hospitals (p=0.019, p=0.012). The average number of words and the average number of words with 4 or more syllables in forms were found to be significantly higher in private hospitals compared to state and university hospitals (p=0.004, p=0.01). It has been determined that the readability level of informed consent forms was at academic literacy level. To protect patient rights and to regulate patient-physician relationships by taking into account individuals rights, informed consent forms should be reviewed and that their readability levels should be adjusted to cover the overall educational level of individuals in the general population.

PDF

___

Kaya M. Relationship between physician’s obligation to inform the patient and right to personality. Human Rights Review. 2012;1:8.

Republic of Turkey, Patient Rights Regulation, Official Gazette, Date 01.08.1998. Number 23420.

Štajner S, Evans R, Orasan C. Mitkov R. What can readability measures really tell us about text complexity. In: Proceedings of workshop on natural language processing for improving textual accessibility. 2nd CFP: LREC 2012 Workshop on natural language processing for improving textual accessibility, 27 May 2012. Turkey

Boztaş N, Özbilgin Ş, Öçmen E, et al. Evaluating the readibility of informed consent forms available before anaesthesia: a comparative study. Turk J Anaesthesiol Reanim. 2014;42:140-4.

Ateşman E. Measuring readability in Turkish. Language Journal. 1997;58:171-4.

Bezirci B, Yilmaz AE. A software library for measurement of readability of texts and a new readability metric for Turkish. DEUFMD. 2010;12:49-62.

Flesch R. A new readability yardstick. J Appl Psychol. 1948;32:221.

Gunning R. The technique of clear writing. NYMc Graw Hill, New York, 1952.

Convention for the protection of human rights and dignity of the human being with regard to the application of biology and medicine: convention on human rights and biomedicine. http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/ Html/164.htm access date 03.10.2018

Sönmez MG, Kozanhan B, Özkent MS, et al. The evaluation of the readability of informed consent forms used for urology: Is there a difference between open, endoscopic and laparoscopic surgery?. Turk J Surg. 2018; 1-5.

Ören E, Eren CS, Yeşildere FB, et al. Informed consent of contrast media applications in radiology: assesment of comprehensibility and the anxiety of the patients. TERH. 2010;20:122-30.

Bozsahin C. Deriving the predicate-argument structure for a free word order language. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and 17th International Conference on Computational Linguistics; 10-14 August 1998. Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 167-73.

Dikmenli M, Çardak O, Altunsoy S. Ortaöğretim biyoloji ders kitaplarında “hücre bölünmeleri” ile ilgili metinlerin okunabilirlik düzeyleri. International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES); 23-25 July 2008. Phamagusta, North Cyprus.

Klare G. Readability: The Formative Tears. International Reading Assocation Inc, Newark, Delaware, 1988.

İncesu E. Seydisehir of Konya state hospital inpatients, informing consent and evaluation of making processes. Turkish J Forensic Sci. 2014;13:1.

Durfy SJ, Buchanan TE, Burke W. Testing for inherited susceptibility to breast cancer: a survey of informed consent forms for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation testing. Am J Med Genet. 1998;75:82-7.

Finnie RK, Felder TM, Linder SK, et al. Beyond reading level: a systematic review of the suitability of cancer education print and web-based materials. J Cancer Educ. 2010;25:497-505.

Turkish Statistical Institute. http://www.tuik.gov.tr/PreHaberBultenleri. do?id=27594 access date 22.08.2018.

Tanrıöver MD, Yıldırım HH, Ready ND, et al. Türkiye sağlık okuryazarlığı araştırması. Birinci Baskı. Sağlık-Sen Yayınları; Ankara, 2014.