Improving Health Outcomes through Computer Generation of Reader-Appropriate Texts

描述(由申请人提供)：许多研究表明，提供给消费者的健康信息的可读性与他们的一般阅读水平不匹配(Rudd，Moeykens等人)。2000)。即使医疗保健提供者和作者努力使材料更具可读性，今天大多数面向患者的网站、小册子、药品标签和出院说明仍然要求消费者具有十年级或更高的阅读水平(Nielsen-Bohlman，Panzer等人)。2004年)。然而，消费者的阅读水平低至四年级的情况并不少见。为了解决这个问题，我们建议开发一种基于计算机的方法，为消费者提供适当可读性的文本。统计自然语言处理技术的最新进展(Barzilay 2003；Barzilay and Elhada 2003；Elhada，McKeown等人)。2005)使我们相信，可以开发计算机程序来显著增加消费者可用的可读内容的范围和数量。它还可能有助于改善理解、自我管理和最终的临床结果。这个项目的总目标是通过将内容从难理解自动翻译成易于理解的内容，为消费者提供可读的内容。具体目标是1。开发一种用于评估卫生文本可读性的计算机化工具。我们将加强现有的可读性工具(Zakaluk和Samuels，1988年3月1日)，包括健康术语难度、文本凝聚力以及内容组织和布局的测量。2.利用统计自然语言处理技术，开发一种“普通英语”工具，将复杂的保健文本翻译成目标可读性水平的新版本，而不会丢失关键信息。3.进行一项评估研究，以验证提供适当可读性的内容对读者理解有积极影响。我们将使用普通内科诊所和糖尿病患者作为我们系统的试验床。我们将为这些患者提供自我护理材料。与公共卫生的相关性：拟议开发一个可读性评估工具和“简单英语”工具，将有助于将复杂的卫生材料翻译成适合读者阅读的文本。它有可能使卫生领域的大量可用信息更容易为普通公众所获取。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Many studies have shown that the readability of the health information provided to consumers does not match their general reading levels (Rudd, Moeykens et al. 2000). Even with the efforts of healthcare providers and writers to make materials more readable, today most patient-oriented Web sites, pamphlets, drug-labels, and discharge instructions still require the consumer to have a tenth grade reading level or higher (Nielsen-Bohlman, Panzer et al. 2004). Not infrequently, however, consumer reading levels are as low as fourth grade. To address this problem, we propose developing a computer-based method for providing texts of appropriate readability to a consumer. Recent progress in statistical natural language processing techniques (Barzilay 2003; Barzilay and Elhadad 2003; Elhadad, McKeown et al. 2005) lead us to believe that computer programs can be developed to dramatically increase the range and amount of readable content available to consumers. It may also help improve comprehension, self management and eventually clinical outcome. The general goal of this project is to provide consumers with readable content through the automated translation of content from difficult to understand to easy to understand. The specific aims are 1. To develop a computerized instrument for assessing the readability of health texts. We will enhance existing readability instruments (Zakaluk and Samuels March 1, 1988) by including measurements of health term difficulty, text cohesion, and content organization and layout. 2. To develop a "Plain English" tool for translating complex health texts into new versions at targeted readability levels with no critical information loss, using statistical natural language processing techniques. 3. To conduct an evaluation study to verify that providing content with appropriate readability has a positive impact on reader comprehension. We will use as a test bed for our system a general internal medicine clinic and its diabetes patients. We will provide self-care materials to these patients. Relevance to public health: The proposed development of a readability assessment instrument and "Plain English" tool will help translating complex health materials into reader-appropriate texts. It has the potential of making the vast amount of available information in the health domain more accessible to the lay public.