Quality of Patient Education Pamphlets in Hospitals in Rasht, Northern Iran

Abstract

Patient education is one of the nursing important performances in all domains and it has many benefits and positive results in health maintenance and promotion. Numerous studies have been performed to determine the various methods in effective patient education programs، but the quality of patient education has not been addressed sufficiently.

To determine the quality of patient education pamphlets in therapeutic and educational centers in Rasht.

In our cross-sectional study، 172 patient education pamphlets in Rasht Educational and Therapeutic centers have been collected and their quality was evaluated against valid and reliable researcher-made checklist consisting of four sections; (1) title، (2) text، (3) appearance and visual attraction، and (4) structure and general points. Calculation of readability was done using McLauglin،s SMOG (Simplified Measure Of Gobbledygoop) formula. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics using SPSS software version 17.

Mean scores of quality for title، text، appearance and visual attraction، and structure and general points were 5. 72±1. 09، 11. 97±2. 84، 6. 67±2. 14، and 6. 21±2. 08، respectively. Also، patient education pamphlets were written on average at 11 grade level (11. 58±1. 4) and only 1. 2 percent of them were written at recommended level (at or below the sixth grade level).

The results showed more than half of the pamphlets in Educational and Therapeutic centers had undesirable quality and majority of them were not of desirable readability level (6 and less). Conflict of interest: non declared