One of the goals of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) is to disseminate patient education materials that
suit the readability skills of the patient population. According to standard guidelines from healthcare organizations, the
readability of patient education materials should be no higher than the sixth-grade level. We hypothesized the readability
level of patient education materials available on the AAOS Web site would be higher than the recommended grade level, regardless
when the material was available online. Readability scores of all articles from the AAOS Internet-based patient information
Web site, “Your Orthopaedic Connection,” were determined using the Flesch-Kincaid grade formula. The mean Flesch-Kincaid grade
level of the 426 unique articles was 10.43. Only 10 (2%) of the articles had the recommended readability level of sixth grade
or lower. The readability of the articles did not change with time. Our findings suggest the majority of the patient education
materials available on the AAOS Web site had readability scores that may be too difficult for comprehension by a substantial
portion of the patient population.
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