Cargando…

Readability of the Written Study Information in Pediatric Research in France

BACKGROUND: The aim was to evaluate the readability of research information leaflets (RIL) for minors asked to participate in biomedical research studies and to assess the factors influencing this readability. METHODS AND FINDINGS: All the pediatric protocols from three French pediatric clinical res...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ménoni, Véronique, Lucas, Noël, Leforestier, Jean-François, Doz, François, Chatellier, Gilles, Jacqz-Aigain, Evelyne, Giraud, Carole, Tréluyer, Jean-Marc, Chappuy, Hélène
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3071832/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21494689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018484
_version_ 1782201479877099520
author Ménoni, Véronique
Lucas, Noël
Leforestier, Jean-François
Doz, François
Chatellier, Gilles
Jacqz-Aigain, Evelyne
Giraud, Carole
Tréluyer, Jean-Marc
Chappuy, Hélène
author_facet Ménoni, Véronique
Lucas, Noël
Leforestier, Jean-François
Doz, François
Chatellier, Gilles
Jacqz-Aigain, Evelyne
Giraud, Carole
Tréluyer, Jean-Marc
Chappuy, Hélène
author_sort Ménoni, Véronique
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The aim was to evaluate the readability of research information leaflets (RIL) for minors asked to participate in biomedical research studies and to assess the factors influencing this readability. METHODS AND FINDINGS: All the pediatric protocols from three French pediatric clinical research units were included (N = 104). Three criteria were used to evaluate readability: length of the text, Flesch's readability score and presence of illustrations. We compared the readability of RIL to texts specifically written for children (school textbooks, school exams or extracts from literary works). We assessed the effect of protocol characteristics on readability. The RIL had a median length of 608 words [350 words, 25(th) percentile; 1005 words, 75(th) percentile], corresponding to two pages. The readability of the RIL, with a median Flesch score of 40 [30; 47], was much poorer than that of pediatric reference texts, with a Flesch score of 67 [60; 73]. A small proportion of RIL (13/91; 14%) were illustrated. The RIL were longer (p<0.001), more readable (p<0.001) and more likely to be illustrated (p<0.009) for industrial than for institutional sponsors. CONCLUSION: Researchers should routinely compute the reading ease of study information sheets and make greater efforts to improve the readability of written documents for potential participants.
format Text
id pubmed-3071832
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2011
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-30718322011-04-14 Readability of the Written Study Information in Pediatric Research in France Ménoni, Véronique Lucas, Noël Leforestier, Jean-François Doz, François Chatellier, Gilles Jacqz-Aigain, Evelyne Giraud, Carole Tréluyer, Jean-Marc Chappuy, Hélène PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: The aim was to evaluate the readability of research information leaflets (RIL) for minors asked to participate in biomedical research studies and to assess the factors influencing this readability. METHODS AND FINDINGS: All the pediatric protocols from three French pediatric clinical research units were included (N = 104). Three criteria were used to evaluate readability: length of the text, Flesch's readability score and presence of illustrations. We compared the readability of RIL to texts specifically written for children (school textbooks, school exams or extracts from literary works). We assessed the effect of protocol characteristics on readability. The RIL had a median length of 608 words [350 words, 25(th) percentile; 1005 words, 75(th) percentile], corresponding to two pages. The readability of the RIL, with a median Flesch score of 40 [30; 47], was much poorer than that of pediatric reference texts, with a Flesch score of 67 [60; 73]. A small proportion of RIL (13/91; 14%) were illustrated. The RIL were longer (p<0.001), more readable (p<0.001) and more likely to be illustrated (p<0.009) for industrial than for institutional sponsors. CONCLUSION: Researchers should routinely compute the reading ease of study information sheets and make greater efforts to improve the readability of written documents for potential participants. Public Library of Science 2011-04-06 /pmc/articles/PMC3071832/ /pubmed/21494689 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018484 Text en Menoni et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ménoni, Véronique
Lucas, Noël
Leforestier, Jean-François
Doz, François
Chatellier, Gilles
Jacqz-Aigain, Evelyne
Giraud, Carole
Tréluyer, Jean-Marc
Chappuy, Hélène
Readability of the Written Study Information in Pediatric Research in France
title Readability of the Written Study Information in Pediatric Research in France
title_full Readability of the Written Study Information in Pediatric Research in France
title_fullStr Readability of the Written Study Information in Pediatric Research in France
title_full_unstemmed Readability of the Written Study Information in Pediatric Research in France
title_short Readability of the Written Study Information in Pediatric Research in France
title_sort readability of the written study information in pediatric research in france
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3071832/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21494689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018484
work_keys_str_mv AT menoniveronique readabilityofthewrittenstudyinformationinpediatricresearchinfrance
AT lucasnoel readabilityofthewrittenstudyinformationinpediatricresearchinfrance
AT leforestierjeanfrancois readabilityofthewrittenstudyinformationinpediatricresearchinfrance
AT dozfrancois readabilityofthewrittenstudyinformationinpediatricresearchinfrance
AT chatelliergilles readabilityofthewrittenstudyinformationinpediatricresearchinfrance
AT jacqzaigainevelyne readabilityofthewrittenstudyinformationinpediatricresearchinfrance
AT giraudcarole readabilityofthewrittenstudyinformationinpediatricresearchinfrance
AT treluyerjeanmarc readabilityofthewrittenstudyinformationinpediatricresearchinfrance
AT chappuyhelene readabilityofthewrittenstudyinformationinpediatricresearchinfrance