Hygeia Public Health 2017, 52(3): 241-248pl

Readability of online texts from National Health Fund and Polish Ministry of Health websites - a statistical analysis and a comparison with popular health websites

Edyta Charzyńska

Wydział Pedagogiki i Psychologii, Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach

Summary
Introduction. Nowadays, the Internet has become one of the major sources of health-related knowledge, influencing patients´ decisions and behaviors.
Aim. The primary goal of this research was to assess the readability of patient materials published online by the National Health Fund (NFZ) and the Polish Ministry of Health (MZ). Moreover, those texts and the texts from popular health websites were compared in terms of text difficulty. The easiest and the most difficult health-related topics were also identified.
Material and method. Two hundred texts from NFZ and MZ websites, as well as 616 texts from popular health-related websites, were analyzed with the use of the Jasnopis application.
Results. The majority (85.5%) of online health-related texts prepared for patients by the NFZ and the MZ belonged to 5th, 6th or 7th class of text difficulty, which means that they were mostly appropriate for well-educated people. Texts published on popular health websites were slightly less difficult - on the average a reader needed to finish high school to comprehend them. The highest level of difficulty was noted for texts on health services, whereas the lowest level of difficulty was observed for psychological texts.
Conclusion. The results suggest the necessity to simplify health-related texts targeted at patients by public health care institutions in Poland.

Key words:  text difficulty, readability, plain language, health, Internet