How readable are practice leaflets?

Over the past few years the subject of doctors' communication skills has come under scrutiny, and in 1991 a consensus conference was held in Toronto.' Attention has focused mainly on the outcome of messages between doctor and patient when both are present. Yet much communication takes place in the doctor's absence by means of leaflets and notices. This important topic has seldom been studied. All general practices now have to produce leaflets for their patients under specified guidelines.2 Evaluation shows that they are well received3 and that they can influence patients' behaviour.4' But are they as readable as they might be? We examined 85 practice leaflets from the Avon area using accepted techniques of good written communication. In particular, we used a simple index of readability (the "fog" test) to compare the clarity of the language used in leaflets with that in outside publications.