Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jun 29, 2022
Date Accepted: Dec 29, 2022
Multiple automated health literacy assessments of written health information: Development of the Sydney Health Literacy Lab (SHeLL) Health Literacy Editor v1
ABSTRACT
Background:
Producing health information that people can easily understand is challenging and time-consuming. Existing guidance is often subjective and lacks specificity. This paper outlines development of the Sydney Health Literacy Lab (SHeLL) Health Literacy Editor, an automated tool to facilitate implementation of health literacy guidelines for the production of easy to read written health information.
Objective:
The SHeLL Health Literacy Editor aimed to assist Australian health information providers to develop health education materials for patients or community members (herein referred to as ‘consumers’) that adhere to health literacy guidelines to improve the quality, safety, and reading ease of written health information.
Methods:
Existing health literacy and relevant writing guidelines were collated. Items amenable to programmable automated assessment were incorporated into the Editor. A set of natural language processing methods were also adapted for use in the SHeLL editor.
Results:
The Editor comprises six assessments: readability, complex language, passive voice, text structure, lexical density/diversity, and person-centred language. These are presented as global scores, with additional, more specific feedback flagged in the text itself. Feedback is provided in real-time such that users can iteratively revise and improve the text. The design also includes a ‘text preparation’ mode, a hierarchy of assessments to help prioritise those that are most important, and a function that exports the analysis and revised text.
Conclusions:
The SHeLL Health Literacy Editor is an innovative new tool to improve the quality and safety of written health information. It provides objective, immediate feedback on a range of factors, complementing readability with other, less widely used but important objective assessments such as complex and person-centred language. This is a scalable intervention to support the uptake of health literacy guidelines by health services and providers of health information. Clinical Trial: N/A
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