Begin forwarded message:

> From: Maged N Kamel Boulos <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 8 September 2004 12:03:52 BST
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [bmis-members] Diabetes advice criticised
>
> Thought you might be interested in this:
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/ 
> thehealthnews.html?in_article_id=317004&in_page_id=1797
> http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/displayNode.jsp? 
> nodeId=163038&command=displayContent&sourceNode=163527&contentPK=109118 
> 81
>  
> This paper will be presented on September 16 to the 2nd HDL 2004:  
> Workshop on Digital Libraries in Healthcare, held at the University of  
> Bath (see  
> http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~patty/HDL2004/ 
> HDL%202004%20Workshop%20Abstracts.html).
>  
> Recommended related resource: http://www.pfizerhealthliteracy.com/
>
>  
> With every best wish,
> --Maged N Kamel Boulos
>
>



> This story is brought to you by  
> http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/displayNode.jsp? 
> nodeId=163038&command=displayContent&sourceNode=163527&contentPK=109118 
> 81
>
> WARNING OVER ONLINE ADVICE FOR DIABETICS
>
>  Date : 08.09.04
>
>   
> A New report has claimed people with diabetes could be suffering  
> unnecessarily because they do not understand online information.  
> Researchers at the University of Bath have looked at some of the main  
> websites people turn to for diabetes information and found them too  
> hard to understand.
>
> Now they are warning of potential 'serious consequences' for patients  
> who are not finding the help they need.
>
> Dr Maged Boulos, of the University of Bath's School for Health, says  
> the language of the diabetes pages of the NHS Direct Online site can  
> only be understood by people whose reading ability is well beyond that  
> of the average UK citizen.
>
> He looked at pages about diabetes on 15 internet health sites, run  
> mainly by charities and official bodies.
>
> Dr Boulos said: "Sizeable proportions of Western populations have  
> limited language and maths skills, making it difficult for them to  
> fully and safely understand and act upon online health information.
>
> "Public and patient health information that is difficult to understand  
> or liable to misunderstanding by the lay consumer could result in  
> serious consequences.
>
> "Much of the currently available online consumer information on  
> diabetes needs considerable re-writing to match the general reading  
> level of the UK population."
>
> The estimated average reading age of a UK adult is nine years, but Dr  
> Boulos found that people would need the reading ability of an educated  
> person aged between 11 and 16.8 years old to understand many of the  
> sites.
>
> The hardest of the 15 sites to understand was the NHS Direct Online  
> site, needing a reading age of an educated person aged 16.8 years, but  
> other difficult sites were NetDoctor.co.uk (15.2 years), the Juvenile  
> Diabetes Research Foundation, UK (15.8) and the British Diabetic  
> Association (14.9).
>
> Dr Dan Rutherford, medical director of Net Doctor, said its  
> information on diabetes had recently been re-written and is due to go  
> live on the internet in a few weeks.
>
> A Department of Health spokesman said: "We try to make all our  
> information as easy to understand as possible and are happy to listen  
> to constructive criticism on how we could improve it."
>
> Sites identified as having a readability score that was close to the  
> reading ability of the average Briton were NHS Prodigy, University  
> College London Hospitals NHS Trust and BestTreatments.
>
> Dr Boulos recommends that health providers consider other means of  
> getting health information to the public, such as face-to-face  
> education and videos.
>
> The study used the generally accepted Flesch Reading Ease and  
> Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formulae to test the readability of  
> documents.
>
> Dr Boulos was the author of a recent study that showed that the NHS  
> needed to hire 5,200 more dentists to bring its dental services up to  
> the standard of other western countries.
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
>



>
> 07/09/04 - Health news section
>
> Diabetes advice criticised
>
> Many diabetes sufferers cannot understand health advice given on an  
> NHS website, according to a new study published.
>
>  The language of the diabetes pages of the NHS Direct Online site can  
> only be understood by people whose reading ability is well beyond that  
> of the average UK citizen, the study revealed.
>
>  But the average reading age of UK citizens is that of an average  
> educated nine-year-old child, according to the report by Dr Maged  
> Boulos, of Bath University, creating the potential for "serious  
> consequences" if the information is misunderstood.
>
>  Dr Boulos looked at pages about diabetes on 15 internet health sites  
> run mainly by charities and official bodies.
>
>  He concluded that the NHS Direct Online site was the hardest to  
> understand. He stated that people would need the reading ability of an  
> educated person aged 16 to comprehend information.
>
>  Other difficult sites were NetDoctor.co.uk and Juvenile Diabetes  
> Research Foundation, UK, which both required a reading age of at least  
> 15.
>
>  Sites with readability scores closer to the ability of the average  
> Briton were NHS Prodigy, University College London Hospitals NHS Trust  
> and BestTreatments.
>
>  Dr Boulos said: "Sizeable proportions of Western populations have  
> limited language and maths skills making it difficult for them to  
> fully and safely understand and act upon online health information.
>
>  "Public and patient health information that is difficult to  
> understand or liable to misunderstanding by the lay consumer could  
> result in serious consequences."
>
>  He warned that much online information on diabetes needed  
> "considerable re-writing" to match the general reading level of the UK  
> population.
>
>
>
>
>  Find this story at  
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/ 
> thehealthnews.html?in_article_id=317004&in_page_id=1797
> ©2004 Associated New Media
>
>
>
>
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