Mary Kay Smith wrote:
Does anyone have a handy dandy idea to measure the readibility level of breastfeeding ed information? ....also what is the recommended reading level for most of this information? I've got things in 6-7th grade level for patients and checked some of my staff info and it's around 9-10th grade.

Hi Mary Kay,
    There are several readability tests for print materials.  A user-friendly one is the SMOG test.  It involves counts of polysyllabic words in a passage from the text, on the basis that polysyllabic words occur with more frequency in texts that also use complicated syntax.  (Remember that some polysyllabic words may be familiar to the client group, e.g. "hospital", "infection", "lactation consultant", and sentences at the end of a text that give referral details may be heavy wth these *familiar* polysyllabic terms.  So it's best not to select sentences such as this for analysis.)  Complexity in a text is also added to by devices such as flow charts.
    SMOG uses random selection of blocks of 10 consecutive sentences from the beginning, middle and end of each text being tested, i.e. 3 sets of 10 sentences.  The total polysyllabic words in this 30-sentence sample you then count.  Then take the square root of the total and add the constant 3.  (For short texts, there are specific criteria for using SMOG.)
    Besides the readability of the actual text, other things to take into account are keeping sentences short (and thus without complex constructions), having white space on the page, and avoiding complexities such as double negatives.  Print size and avoiding having coloured print on coloured or patterned background also assists readability.
    You will find more details on using the SMOG test in:

SMOG readability formula. Am J Nurs 1985;85(7):803.

Try your library, or even online, for details. Other readability formulae include Lorge.
     Virginia
      in rainy Brisbane

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