The Influence of Text Characteristics on Perceived and Actual Difficulty of Health Information

Authors

Gondy Leroy, Claremont Graduate UniversityFollow
Stephen Helmreich, New Mexico State University - Main Campus
James Cowie, New Mexico State University - Main Campus

Document Type

Article

Department

Information Systems and Technology (CGU)

Publication Date

2010

Disciplines

Databases and Information Systems

Abstract

Willingness and ability to learn from health information in text are crucial for people to be informed and make better medical decisions. These two user characteristics are influenced by the perceived and actual difficulty of text. Our goal is to find text features that are indicative of perceived and actual difficulty so that barriers to reading can be lowered and understanding of information increased.

Rights Information

© 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

DOI

10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2010.02.002

Recommended Citation

Gondy Leroy, Stephen Helmreich, James R. Cowie, The influence of text characteristics on perceived and actual difficulty of health information, International Journal of Medical Informatics, Volume 79, Issue 6, June 2010, Pages 438-449, ISSN 1386-5056, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2010.02.002. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1386505610000419)