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Introduction: Mental disorders in people who stutter are controversial among researchers. The 3 types of stuttering are developmental stuttering, neurogenic stuttering, and psychogenic stuttering. The exact cause of stuttering is unknown. This study aimed at investigating the relationship between Stress and Reading Comprehension Performance of Iranian Stuttering Individuals. Materials and Methods: The current research was descriptive quantitative research with a correlational approach. The research tools included Zong's Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (S.A.S) questionnaire. The face validity, reliability and internal consistency of the questionnaire were examined. Five patients (5 adult men aged 14 and 19 with symptoms of stuttering and stress) were selected voluntarily among those who referred to the speech therapy clinic in Ilam. Results: To test the normality and abnormality of the research data, the Kolmogorov Smirnov statistics for stuttering and stress were 0.176 and 0.198, respectively, and the significance levels for both variables were greater than 0.05, none of which were statistically significant. In other words, the normality of the data was confirmed, which showed that Pearson's parametric tests can be used. The results indicated a relationship between stress and vulnerability (P < 0.05). Conclusion: It has been concluding that there is a significant relation between stress and stuttering, indicating that stress and social phobia are common among people who stutter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is well-known, but perhaps not well documented, that after the first democratic elections in 1994, South African education was declared standard. However, poverty is widespread in rural-based schools, which negatively impacts the development of quality education for learners. This is attributed to the unique challenges that learners in rural-based schools face that affect their quality of education. Apart from inadequate state funding, insufficient resources, and underqualified teachers, learners are faced with poor reading and writing in foreign languages such as English. Furthermore, teaching language incorporating music as a supportive tool has been neglected. Music can be a powerful tool for language teaching for several reasons. This has become a significant contributor and barrier to effective education. Objective: Therefore, from this background, this article aims to discuss the effectiveness of music education in developing and fostering reading and writing in rural-based schools. Method: A qualitative research method was used embedded within content analysis of existing scholarly writings. Results: Framed within music learning theory, the findings of this article reveal that music education plays an essential role in improving the readability of learners, especially in ruralbased schools. Conclusion: This article concludes by affirming that music education is essential in developing and fostering the reading and writing of languages such as English in rural-based schools. However, this calls for the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to provide a proper music infrastructure in rural-based schools. Contribution: This article provides new insight about the role of music education in improving reading and writing for learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The internet has become an increasingly popular resource among sports medicine patients seeking injury-related information. Numerous organizations recommend that patient educational materials (PEMs) should not exceed sixth-grade reading level. Despite this, studies have consistently shown the reading grade level (RGL) of PEMs to be too demanding across a range of surgical specialties. Purpose: To determine the readability of online sports medicine PEMs. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: The readability of 363 articles pertaining to sports medicine from 5 leading North American websites was assessed using 8 readability formulas: Flesch-Kincaid Reading Grade Level, Flesch Reading Ease Score, Raygor Estimate, Fry Readability Formula, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, Coleman-Liau Index, FORCAST Readability Formula, and Gunning Fog Index. The mean RGL of each article was compared with the sixth- and eighth-grade reading level in the United States. The cumulative mean website RGL was also compared among individual websites. Results: The overall cumulative mean RGL was 12.2 (range, 7.0-17.7). No article (0%) was written at a sixth-grade reading level, and only 3 articles (0.8%) were written at or below the eighth-grade reading level. The overall cumulative mean RGL was significantly higher than the sixth-grade [95% CI for the difference, 6.0-6.5; P <.001] and eighth-grade (95% CI, 4.0-4.5; P <.001) reading levels. There was a significant difference among the cumulative mean RGLs of the 5 websites assessed. Conclusion: Sports medicine PEMs produced by leading North American specialty websites have readability scores that are above the recommended levels. Given the increasing preference of patients for online health care materials, the imperative role of health literacy in patient outcomes, and the growing body of online resources, significant work needs to be undertaken to improve the readability of these materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the readability, content, and authorship of websites related to patella instability. A search was performed using three search engines and four terms related to patella dislocation. Thirty-seven unique websites were identified. Seventeen of 37 (46%) websites disclosed the authorship credentials. The mean Flesch-Kincaid grade was 10.8±3.5, and the mean Flesch reading ease score was 47.6±18. Only 8 of 37 (22%) websites had a third-party Health On the Net seal. The information presented online about patella dislocation can be unreliable and misleading for patients. [Orthopedics. 2022;45(2):e62-e66.]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the relative contribution of the two components in the simple view of reading to the reading comprehension skills of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) adults in the Netherlands. Eighty DHH adults, aged between 30 and 80 years old, were tested on word reading, reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Regression analyses showed that both decoding skills and vocabulary contributed to the reading comprehension skills of DHH adults, with vocabulary being the strongest predictor. For skilled decoders, the picture was somewhat different with only vocabulary being a predictor of reading comprehension. The results of this study show that the simple view of reading is applicable to DHH adults' reading comprehension skills: both decoding skills and vocabulary contribute to reading comprehension. Also, as in previous studies on the simple view of reading, as readers become more skilled in the decoding process, vocabulary becomes the only predictor of reading comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internet is increasingly used to access patient education materials. The average American reading level has been found to be that of a 7th- to 8th-grade student, prompting the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the American Medical Association (AMA) to advise that patient education materials be written between the 4th- to 6th-grade reading level. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reading level of current patient education materials for the most common musculoskeletal oncological tumors. A Google search was performed with all location filters off to account for geographic variability for patient education materials related to 28 orthopedic primary or secondary tumors. All patient education articles from the first 10 website hits for each tumor type were analyzed. Patient education materials from these websites were evaluated using 8 validated readability scales. Patient resources were found to be written at an average grade level nearly double the NIH and AMA recommendation. Patient education materials for soft tissue chondromas were written at the highest level (14.8±1.9), whereas education materials for chordomas (10.1±1.0) most closely approached national recommendations, despite still being written at a readability level nearly 4 grade levels higher than has been recommended. The Flesch Reading Ease assessment provided a mean score of 46.5±7.7, corresponding with a "difficult to read" result. Current patient education materials regarding oncological musculoskeletal-related patient education materials are written significantly above the recommended reading level. Further modification of these resources is warranted to ensure adequate comprehension and informed decision making in the clinical setting. [Orthopedics. 2021;44(1):38-42.]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the use of semantic similarity measures based on distributed representations of words, sentences, and paragraphs (so-called "embeddings") to assess the impact of supra-lexical factors on eye-movement data from early readers of Chinese. In addition, we used a corpus-based measure of surprisal to assess the impact of local word predictability. Eye movement data from 56 Chinese students were collected (a) in the students' 4th grade and (b) one year later while they were in 5th grade. Results indicated that surprisal and some text similarity measures have a significant impact on the moment-to-moment processing of words in reading. The paper presents an easy-to-use set of tools for linking the low-level aspects of fixation durations to a hierarchy of sentence-level and paragraph-level features that can be computed automatically. The study is the first attempt, as far as we are aware, to track the developmental trajectory of these influences in developing readers across a range of reading abilities. The similarity-based measures described here can be used (a) to provide a measure of reader sensitivity to sentence and paragraph cohesion and (b) to assess specific texts for their suitability for readers of different reading ability levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Authors in the health sciences are encouraged to write in the active voice in the belief that this enhances comprehensibility. Hence, the purpose of this study was to compare objectively measured and subjectively perceived comprehensibility of texts in which one voice or the other was highly prevalent. Methods: Objectively rated comprehensibility was obtained by presenting 161 2nd-year chiropractic students with questions pertaining to 2 methods sections of biomedical articles, each presented in its original form with high prevalence of the passive voice, and in a manipulated form with all main verbs in the active voice. The difficulties and sensitivities of questions were compared for the 2 forms of each text. Comprehensibility was obtained by asking students to rate the comprehensibility of authentic sentences from biomedical manuscripts and matched manipulated form in which the voice of the main verb had been changed. Differences in comprehensibility between the 2 texts were assessed with a dependent t test. Results: There were no significant differences in the difficulties or sensitivities of questions pertaining to the 2 original texts written in the passive voice versus the active voice (p > .35 for all comparisons). Students rated sentences written in the passive voice as marginally more comprehensible than sentences written in the active voice (p=.003 per 2-tailed paired t test). Conclusion: The texts written in the active voice were not more comprehensible than texts written in the passive voice. The results of this study do not support editorial guidelines that favor active voice over passive voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The development of understandable informed consent (IC) documents has proven to be one of the most important challenges in research with humans as well as in healthcare settings. Therefore, evaluating and improving understanding has been of increasing interest for empirical research on IC. However, several conceptual and practical challenges for the development of understandable IC documents remain unresolved.Methods: In this paper, we will outline and systematize some of these challenges. On the basis of our own experiences in empirical user testing of IC documents as well as the relevant literature on understanding in IC, we propose an integrated conceptual model for the development of understandable IC documents.Results: The proposed conceptual model integrates different methods for the participatory improvement of written information, including IC, as well as quantitative methods for measuring understanding in IC.Conclusions: In most IC processes, understandable written information is an important prerequisite for valid IC. To improve the quality of IC documents, a conceptual model for participatory procedures of testing, revising, and retesting can be applied. However, the model presented in this paper needs further theoretical and empirical elaboration and clarification of several conceptual and practical challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are increasingly used to quantify patients' perceptions of functional ability. The American Medical Association and NIH suggest patient materials be written at or below 6th to 8th grade reading levels, respectively, yet one recent study asserts that few PROMs comply with these recommendations, and suggests that the majority of PROMs are written at too high of a reading level for self-administered patient use. Notably, this study was limited in its use of only one readability algorithm, although there is no commonly accepted, standard readability algorithm for healthcare-related materials. Our study, using multiple readability equations and heeding equal weight to each, hopes to yield a broader, all-encompassing estimate of readability, thereby offering a more accurate assessment of the readability of orthopaedic PROMS.Questions/purposes: (1) What proportion of orthopaedic-related PROMs and orthopaedic-related portions of the NIH Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) are written at or below the 6th and 8th grade levels? (2) Is there a correlation between the number of questions in the PROM and reading level? (3) Using systematic edits based on guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, what proportion of PROMs achieved American Medical Association and NIH-recommended reading levels?Methods: Eighty-six (86) independent, orthopaedic and general wellness PROMs, drawn from commonly referenced orthopaedic websites and prior studies, were chosen for analysis. Additionally, owing to their increasing use in orthopaedics, four relevant short forms, and 11 adult, physical health question banks from the PROMIS®, were included for analysis. All documents were analyzed for reading grade levels using 19 unique readability algorithms. Descriptive statistics were performed using SPSS Version 22.0.Results: The majority of the independent PROMs (64 of 86; 74%) were written at or below the 6th grade level, with 81 of 86 (94%) written at or below the 8th grade level. All item banks (11 of 11) and short forms (four of four) of the PROMIS® were written below the 6th grade reading level. The median reading grade level of the 86 independent PROMs was 5.0 (interquartile range [IQR], 4.6-6.1). The PROMIS® question banks had a median reading grade level of 4.1 (IQR, 3.5-4.8); the Adult Short Forms had a median reading grade level of 4.2 (IQR, 4.2-4.3) There was no correlation appreciated between the median reading grade level and the number of questions contained in a PROM (r = -0.081; p = 0.460). For PROMs above NIH-recommended levels, following edits, all (five of five) achieved NIH reading level goals and three (three of five) achieved American Medical Association goals. Editing of these PROMs improved readability by 4.3 median grade level (before, 8.9 [IQR, 8.4-9.1], after 4.6 [IQR, 4.6-6.4], difference of medians, 4.3; p = 0.008).Conclusions: Patient literacy has great influence on healthcare outcomes, and readability is an important consideration in all patient-directed written materials. Our study found that more than 70% of PROMs commonly used in orthopaedics, and all orthopaedic-related portions of the PROMIS® are written at or below the most stringent recommendations (≤ 6th grade reading level), and more than 90% of independent PROMs and all PROMIS® materials are written at or below an 8th grade level. Additionally, the use of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidelines for editing high reading level PROMs yields satisfactory results.Clinical Relevance: Fears of widely incomprehensible PROMs may be unfounded. Future research to identify the most appropriate readability algorithm for use in the healthcare sector, and revalidation of PROMs after readability-improving edits is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the content and readability of online patient information resources against the current understanding of gout.Methods: An online survey was undertaken using Google UK, USA, Australia, and Canada. Information was assessed for content and accuracy on 19 key points regarding core content for gout patient information resources. Readability was assessed using the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease score. Fifteen randomly selected websites were reviewed by a blinded second observer.Results: A total of 85 websites were selected. More than 50% of the websites provided no information or had inaccuracies regarding the pathogenesis of gout. Most websites contained information on dietary and lifestyle modifications for treating gout and did not emphasize urate-lowering therapy (ULT) and its potential for cure. Over 75% of the websites had no/inaccurate information on the role of ULT or prophylaxis for preventing gout attacks on starting ULT. The majority of websites were difficult to read, with information in 68% of the websites rated at least fairly difficult.Conclusion: Only a few web-based patient information resources provide accurate and easy-to-read information on gout. This study will help physicians direct patients to currently reliable resources, but there is a need to improve many web-based patient information resources, which at present act as barriers to care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Optometry is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective: Previous research on the developmental course of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is limited by biased clinic-referred samples and other methodological problems. Thus, questions about adult academic outcomes associated with childhood ADHD remain unanswered. Thus, the objective of this study was to describe academic outcomes in adulthood among incident cases of research-identified childhood ADHD versus non-ADHD referents from a population-based birth cohort.Method: Young adults with research-identified childhood ADHD (N = 232; mean age 27.0 yr; 72.0% men) and referents (N = 335; mean age 28.6 yr; 62.7% men) from a 1976 to 1982 birth cohort (N = 5699) were invited to participate in a followup study and were administered an academic achievement battery consisting of the basic reading component of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-III) and the arithmetic subtest of the Wide Range Achievement Test-Third Edition (WRAT-3). Outcomes were compared between the 2 groups using linear regression models, adjusted for age, sex, and comorbid learning disability status.Results: Childhood ADHD cases scored from 3 to 5 grade equivalents lower on all academic tests compared with referents, with mean (SD) standard scores of 95.7 (8.4) versus 101.8 (8.1) in basic reading; 95.0 (9.3) versus 101.9 (8.5) in letterword identification; 98.2 (8.6) versus 103.2 (9.2) in passage comprehension; 95.7 (9.1) versus 100.9 (9.0) in word attack; and 87.8 (12.9) versus 98.0 (12.0) in arithmetic.Conclusion: This is the first prospective, population-based study of adult academic outcomes of childhood ADHD. Our data provide evidence that childhood onset ADHD is associated with long-term underachievement in reading and math that may negatively impact ultimate educational attainment and occupational functioning in adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, federal regulations require that outpatient practices provide a clinical summary to ensure that patients understand what transpired during their appointment and what to do before the next visit. To determine whether clinical summaries are appropriately designed to achieve these objectives, we examined their content and formatting and their usability. We obtained a convenience sample of clinical summaries from 13 diverse practices across the U.S. and assessed their characteristics using validated measures. We also interviewed key informants at these practices to assess their views of the documents. The summaries were generated by seven different electronic health record platforms. They had small font sizes (median, 10 point) and high reading grade levels (median, 10). Suitability, measured with the Suitability Assessment of Materials was low (median score, 61%) and understandability and actionability, measured with the Patient Education Materials Assessment Test, were fair to moderate (65% and 78%, respectively). Content and order of content were inconsistent across the summaries. Among physicians, 46% found the summaries helpful for clarifying medications while 38% found them helpful for conveying follow-up information. Results suggest that clinical summaries in the U.S. may often be suboptimally designed for communicating important information with patients. A patient-centered approach to designing them is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the deficiencies of readability formulae as reliable tools for measuring text readability in educational settings, this study aims to offer a new measure to improve the current methods of testing the readability levels of texts through the incorporation of the newly-developed concept of emotioncy. To this end, a group of 221 students were selected from the 2nd to 4th grades of an elementary school. They were given a passage from a 5th grade textbook whose readability was measured by Flesch and Fog indices. The students were asked to fill out an 8-item emotioncy scale along with a difficulty-finding item. One-way ANOVA and correlational analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings indicated that learners' comprehension increases as a result of an increase in their emotioncy levels. In the end, the results were discussed and some suggestions were made to employ emotioncy in measuring readability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patient education materials should be written at a level that is understandable for patients with low health literacy. The aims of this study are (1) to review the literature on readability of ophthalmic patient education materials and (2) to evaluate and revise our institution's patient education materials about glaucoma using evidence-based guidelines on writing for patients with low health literacy.Methods: A systematic search was conducted on the PubMed/MEDLINE database for studies that have evaluated readability level of ophthalmic patient education materials, and the reported readability scores were assessed. Additionally, we collected evidence-based guidelines for writing easy-to-read patient education materials, and these recommendations were applied to revise 12 patient education handouts on various glaucoma topics at our institution. Readability measures, including Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), and word count were calculated for the original and revised documents. The original and revised versions of the handouts were then scored in random order by two glaucoma specialists using the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM) instrument, a grading scale used to evaluate suitability of health information materials for patients. Paired t test was used to analyze changes in readability measures, word count, and SAM score between original and revised handouts. Finally, five glaucoma patients were interviewed to discuss the revised materials, and patient feedback was analyzed qualitatively.Results: Our literature search included 13 studies that evaluated a total of 950 educational materials. Among the mean FKGL readability scores reported in these studies, the median was 11 (representing an eleventh-grade reading level). At our institution, handouts' readability averaged a tenth-grade reading level (FKGL = 10.0 ± 1.6), but revising the handouts improved their readability to a sixth-grade reading level (FKGL = 6.4 ± 1.2) (p < 0.001). Additionally, the mean SAM score of our institution's handouts improved from 60 ± 7 % (adequate) for the original versions to 88 ± 4 % (superior) for the revised handouts (p < 0.001).Conclusions: Our systematic review of the literature reveals that ophthalmic patient education materials are consistently written at a level that is too high for many patients to understand. Our institution's experience suggests that applying guidelines on writing easy-to-understand material can improve the readability and suitability of educational materials for patients with low health literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Linguistica Asiatica is the property of Acta Linguistica Asiatica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Low education levels are endemic in much of the developing world, particularly in rural areas where traditional government-provided public services often have difficulty reaching beneficiaries. Providing trained para-teachers to teach regular after-school remedial education classes has been shown to improve literacy and numeracy in children of primary school age residing in such areas in India. This trial investigates whether such an intervention can also be effective in a West African setting with similarly low learning levels and difficult geographic access.Methods/design: Design: cluster-randomized controlled trial. Clusters: villages or groups of villages with 15-300 households and at least 15 eligible children in the Lower River and North Bank Regions of The Gambia.Participants: children born between 1 September 2007 and 31 August 2009 planning to enter the first grade, for the first time, in the 2015-2016 school year in eligible villages. We anticipate enrolling approximately 150 clusters of villages with approximately 6000 children as participants.Intervention: a program providing remedial after-school lessons, focusing on literacy and numeracy, 5 to 6 days a week for 3 years to eligible children, based on the intervention evaluated in the Support To Rural India's Public Education System (STRIPES) trial (PLoS ONE 8(7):e65775).Control: both the intervention and control groups will receive small bundles of useful materials during annual data collection as recompense for their time. If the education intervention is shown to be cost-effective at raising learning levels, it is expected that the control group villages will receive the intervention for several years after the trial results are available.Outcomes: the primary outcome of the trial is a composite mathematics and language test score. Secondary outcomes include school attendance, enrollment, performance on nationally administered exams, parents' spending on education, spillover learning to siblings and family members, and school-related time use of parents and children. Subgroup analyses of the primary outcome will also be carried out based on ethnic group, gender, distance from the main highway, parents' education level, and school type. The trial will run by independent research and implementation teams and supervised by a Trial Steering Committee.Discussion: Along with the overall impact of the intervention, we will conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis. There are no major ethical issues for this study.Trial Registration: Current controlled trials ISRCTN12500245 . 1 May 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented which discusses importance of plain-language explanations about effect size and minimum clinically important differences (MCIDs). Topics discussed include risk of admission to an intensive-care unit (ICU) following surgery; problems associated with clinical research; and impact of factors like smoking, use of cement, and male sex on orthopaedic study.

Strategies are often seen as ways used by language learners for getting out of trouble in language study in the short term, but a more positive view might be that successful strategies used by learners can promote longer term language development. This article explores the research evidence for benefits that strategy use in reading can bring in learners' language achievement in both the short term and the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard 10 of the Common Core State Standards attends to students' capacity with complex text. This standard distinguishes the Common Core State Standards from previous standards documents. This article describes a process-the Text Complexity Multi-Index (TCMI)-that supports teachers in studying texts to support their students in increasing capacity with complex text. The TCMI addresses the three prongs of the text complexity triad identified by the CCSS: quantitative, qualitative, and reader-task. As teachers apply steps of the TCMI process, they become increasingly knowledgeable about the features of texts that can create challenges for students and those that provide the content of lessons that support students in reading increasingly more complex texts across their school careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Largely due to technological advances, methods for analyzing readability have increased significantly in recent years. While past researchers designed hundreds of formulas to estimate the difficulty of texts for readers, controversy has surrounded their use for decades, with criticism stemming largely from their application in creating new texts as well as their utilization of surface-level indicators as proxies for complex cognitive processes that take place when reading a text. This review focuses on examining developments in the field of readability during the past two decades with the goal of informing both current and future research and providing recommendations for present use. The fields of education, linguistics, cognitive science, psychology, discourse processing, and computer science have all made recent strides in developing new methods for predicting the difficulty of texts for various populations. However, there is a need for further development of these methods if they are to become widely available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Pharmacy Practice (1886-3655) is the property of Centro de Investigaciones y Publicaciones Farmaceuticas S.L. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Informed consent is required in most clinical research with humans. While federal regulations state consent information should be understandable to participants, concerns have been raised that consent forms are overly long and complex.Design: Consent forms from 2006 HIV network trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Division of AIDS (DAIDS), were analyzed for complexity and length. Comparisons were made between US and international sites, template and site forms, adult and pediatric trials, and trial type. How randomization and placebos were explained was examined as these are frequently misunderstood.Results: One hundred twenty-four consent forms (21 template and 103 site forms) were reviewed. Median readability was 9.2 grade level, although confidentiality sections were 12.35 median grade level. International sites' forms had lower readability than US forms (p = 0.025), template forms had lower readability than site forms (p = 0.046), and adult forms were less complex than pediatric (parent) forms (p < 0.0001). Median length of all forms was 22.4 pages; the 85 forms from adult studies had a median length of 27.4 pages. Sections describing randomization were a median length of 53 words.Conclusions: Consent forms are extremely long, exceeding recommendations for how much information readily can be processed. Networks should consider providing shorter consent templates, consistent with federal recommendations, given that sites' forms are based on these models. Further research should examine whether forms emphasizing key information (rather than providing details about all aspects of the research) improve understanding of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certain font features (e.g., letter width) can change the amount of space occupied by text in published works. Font styles/features are also known to affect reading eye movements (EM); however, few studies have examined these effects - and none used high-resolution displays. We examined the effects of font width on EMs by utilizing four fonts, from the Univers family, which varied in letter-width magnitude. Participants' (n = 25) reading speed, saccade velocity, and the duration/number of fixations and saccades were recorded. The Ultra Condensed font significantly influenced readability and yielded: fewer fixations and saccades; longer fixation durations than the Roman and Extended fonts; and shorter saccade durations, relative to the other fonts. Readers efficiently adjusted their EMs such that no reading-speed differences were observed. The eye-tracking metrics revealed two trade-off effects: (1) fewer and shorter EMs and (2) more and longer EMs, which were revealed by the font-width manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined readability and suitability of printed health information materials colleted from multiple sources. In phase I, nursing students used Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG; McLaughlin, 1969) to assess the readability of 21 materials collected from the community. In phases II and III, nursing students and registered nurses used SMOG and the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM; Doak, Doak, & Root, 1996) to evaluate 15 prenatal materials from a Healthy Start program. SMOG assigns a reading grade level based on the number of words with 3 or more syllables. SAM has 22 items in 6 evaluation areas: content, literacy demand, graphics, layout and typography, learning stimulation and motivation, and cultural appropriateness. Major findings included that 53% to 86% of the printed materials had a reading level at or higher than 9th grade; materials lacked summary, interaction, and modeled behaviors, and registered nurses rated more materials as not suitable and fewer as superior for suitability qualities than students. Improving printed materials to have lower reading levels and better suitability qualities are indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the underlying causes and developmental patterns of stability and change in early reading abilities. In a longitudinal study of twins (n=4,291 pairs), individual differences in reading achievement assessed by teachers using U.K. National Curriculum (NC) criteria showed substantial heritabilities at ages 7, 9, and 10 years (.57-.67) and modest shared environmental influences (.10-.17). Stability in NC scores was primarily mediated genetically. There was also evidence for age-specific genetic influences at each age. Genetic influences on reading are substantial and stable during the elementary school years despite the shift from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent evidence indicates that each eye does not always fixate the same letter during reading and there has been some suggestion that processing difficulty may influence binocular coordination. We recorded binocular eye movements from children and adults reading sentences containing a word frequency manipulation. We found disparities of significant magnitude between the two eyes for all participants, with greater disparity magnitudes in children than adults. All participants made fewer crossed than uncrossed fixations. However, children made a higher proportion of crossed fixations than adults. We found no influence of word frequency on children's fixations and on binocular coordination in adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adverse events resulting from medication error are a serious concern. Patients' literacy and their ability to understand medication information are increasingly seen as a safety issue.Objective: To examine whether adult patients receiving primary care services at a public hospital clinic were able to correctly interpret commonly used prescription medication warning labels.Design: In-person structured interviews with literacy assessment.Setting: Public hospital, primary care clinic.Participants: A total of 251 adult patients waiting for an appointment at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport (LSUHSC-S) Primary Care Clinic.Measurements: Correct interpretation, as determined by expert panel review of patients' verbatim responses, for each of 8 commonly used prescription medication warning labels.Results: Approximately one-third of patients (n=74) were reading at or below the 6th-grade level (low literacy). Patient comprehension of warning labels was associated with one's literacy level. Multistep instructions proved difficult for patients across all literacy levels. After controlling for relevant potential confounding variables, patients with low literacy were 3.4 times less likely to interpret prescription medication warning labels correctly (95% confidence interval: 2.3 to 4.9).Conclusions: Patients with low literacy had difficulty understanding prescription medication warning labels. Patients of all literacy levels had better understanding of warning labels that contained single-step versus multiple-step instructions. Warning labels should be developed with consumer participation, especially with lower literate populations, to ensure comprehension of short, concise messages created with familiar words and recognizable icons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines morphological awareness in developmental dyslexia. While the poor phonological awareness of dyslexic children has been related to their difficulty in handling the alphabetical principle, less is known about their morphological awareness, which also plays an important part in reading development. The aim of this study was to analyze in more detail the implications of the phonological impairments of dyslexics in dealing with larger units of language such as morphemes. First, the performance of dyslexic children in a series of morphological tasks was compared with the performance of children matched on reading-level and chronological age. In all the tasks, the dyslexic group performed below the chronological age control group, suggesting that morphological awareness cannot be developed entirely independently of reading experience and/or phonological skills. Comparisons with the reading-age control group indicated that, while the dyslexic children were poorer in the morphemic segmentation tasks, they performed normally for their reading level in the sentence completion tasks. Furthermore, they produced more derived words in the production task. This suggests that phonological impairments prevent the explicit segmentation of affixes while allowing the development of productive morphological knowledge. A second study compared dyslexic subgroups defined by their degree of phonological impairment. Our results suggest that dyslexics develop a certain type of morphological knowledge which they use as a compensatory reading strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares readability formulas and leveling procedures. Background of readability and leveling; Factors to consider in determining readability and leveling scores; Difference of the range of difficulty between readability and leveling.

Readability formulas were used to calculate the difficulty level of randomly selected passages from 16 parent education publications. Raw scores and reading grade levels were derived from the language variables specified by six formulas. Significant (p = .001) correlations (Spearman Rank-Order) exist between all sets of formulas. Reading levels varied by three or four grades in 15 of the 16 publications. A t least a high school level of reading ability would be required to comprehend ten of the publications. The newer, less time-consuming formulas are reliable substitutes for the older, more time-consuming ones. Implications for parent education are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Reading Research Quarterly is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Reading Research Quarterly is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Reading Research Quarterly is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Reading Research Quarterly is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Reading Research Quarterly is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the application of the Hanna-Oaster approach to assessing context dependence to data from a published reading comprehension test. The degree of context independence and the degree of context dependence of the items in reading, is discussed. Furthermore, there are some items where reading the passage does not seem either to help or hurt the reader. On the other hand, the effect of prior knowledge on comprehension or learning, is reported.

Accessing and receiving quality healthcare in an unfamiliar health system is a significant challenge for many new immigrants and refugees. This study aims to provide a three-phase model to develop a web-based health information website that helps populations with limited English proficiency (LEP) increase health literacy and improve healthcare service access.Method: First, we conducted a needs assessment from community leaders and service providers. Second, we developed contents from credible sources and tested each item using multiple readability tests. Last, we revised each item to lower the readability and retest its readability.Results: The average reading level for the original 99 topics was assessed at 10.84 (SD= 3.26). After revisions, we were able to lower the readability to 8.56 (SD= 2.96), which was around two grade levels lower, on average.Conclusion: the main purpose for building an English based health information website was to assist the population with LEP. By using simple English with lower readability, it will ease the translation process. This study demonstrates a process to develop suitable contents for populations in need. In the future, incorporating visual aid and other multimedia will be beneficial in user engagement and knowledge retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the demographics of the sample revealed that the majority of journal readers mirror the current demographics of nurse faculty nationally. Topics include examines several percent of respondents are under the age of 35 years and considered less than several percent teach in simulation and advanced practice and as staff nurses.

The article presents an abstract of the paper "Optimal Line Length in Reading--A Literature Review," by A. A. Nanavati and R. Bias, published in the 2005 issue of the journal "Visible Language." Reading is said to be one of the most important aspects of human perception. Professionals working in the field of reading have demonstrated the effects of line length on the readability of a text. Research led to a conclusion that the line length of texts should not exceed about 70 characters per line. They conclude that very short of very long lines negatively affect reading due to an interruption in the normal pattern of eye movements.