Validation of three patient information leaflets about diabetes and exercise

Abstract

Aims: Development and evaluation of three patient information leaflets for people with type 2 diabetes Methods: The leaflets were designed in accordance with existing recommendations for the development of patient education materials. This included review of the material by scientific and linguistic experts and by people with diabetes. The Flesch readability formula adapted to Portuguese was applied. Results: In the review phase, 14 scientific experts, one person with diabetes and two language experts provided comments on the material and suggested changes were made. In the evaluation phase, contributions were received from 10 people with diabetes, 50% of whom were male, with a mean age of 63.0±10.1 years and a mean level of education of 5.6±4.5 years. The evaluation of the readability suggested that the material was at the ninth to twelfth grade comprehension level. In all leaflets, the number of total words and syllables increased from the beginning to the end of the development process. Conclusions: This study documents the development and evaluation of leaflets for patients with Type 2 diabetes in Portugal. It used scientific and language validation by experts who made major changes in the text. It involved patients in the validation and final evaluation of readability, which showed that the final reading level was probably too high. We suggest tools for the development of patient information leaflets in the Portuguese context to assess intelligibility, quality of content, and health literacy. Leaflets should be adapted to the needs of patients. An assessment of their level of understanding and enablement is required.