Jargon Content and Readability of Health Service Policy Documents

Background/Aims Readability of written material is essential for effective communication. The readability of 40 healthcare policies published by the NHS or the Health Service Executive were compared and contrasted against 40 newspaper articles regarding healthcare from the Irish Times or the Irish Mirror. Methods Readability was measured using the Flesch reading ease score and the standardised measure of gobbledygook grade. Findings Flesch and the standardised measure of gobbledygook were significantly worse in health policies than in newspaper articles: none of the healthcare policies met a minimum standard of a Flesch score of 50 or more (P<0.0001); 60% of health policies and no newspaper article had a standardised measure of gobbledygook grade of 13 or more, suggesting a need for a university level education for comprehension (P<0.0001). Conclusions The readability of healthcare policies in Britain and Ireland is poor. A stronger emphasis on the use of plain language is needed.