Online Heart Transplant Resources Overly Complex

TUESDAY, Dec. 6, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Online resources from the nation’s heart transplant center websites are not easily readable or understandable for most Americans, according to a study published online Oct. 22 in the Journal of Cardiac Failure.

James W. Stewart II, M.D., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues reviewed patient-facing information on websites of U.S. heart transplant centers identified through the United Network for Organ Sharing in August 2022.

The researchers found that the median Fry readability level to understand a piece of text for all regions was 15, which is equivalent to a college junior reading level (range, 7 to 17). Regions were similar for median Fry readability levels. Just over half of the 139 eligible heart transplant center websites (56.1 percent) had non-English resources available for patients. The highest percentage of non-English resources was seen in regions 5 (Southwest states and California; 75 percent) and 6 (Northwest states; 75 percent), while region 2 (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Washington, D.C.) had the lowest (38 percent).

“Heart transplant center online resources are inadequate, and many do not provide translations of the English language,” the authors write. “Additional work is needed to standardize heart-transplant patient information for a diverse U.S. patient population.”

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