Comparing Original Patient Educational Materials vs. AI-Simplified Materials to Improve Patient Comprehension and Health Literacy
Purpose
Poor health literacy and patient comprehension have been associated with adverse health outcomes. Patient educational materials (PEMs) are articles that are intended to assist patients in their understanding of a given medical condition. Given that the average American adult reads at the 8th grade level, the American Medical Association and the Center for Disease Control recommend PEM be written at the 6th grade level. However, literature has found the majority of PEMs to be written significantly higher than the 8th grade level. In order to improve their readability, a number of studies have displayed the effectiveness of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT to simplify the text of a given PEM. Despite the improvement in readability, the effectiveness of these simplified PEMs on improving patient comprehension of the AI augmented material has yet to be investigated. The purpose of our study is to test whether the improvement in readability found in AI-simplified PEMs corresponds to a greater understanding of the material compared to the original PEM. Understanding if AI-simplified PEM truly improves comprehension could further support this use case for AI and aid providers and healthcare organizations in improving the health literacy of their patients. This study aims to answer the following question: Do AI simplified PEMs improve the comprehension of pediatric orthopaedic conditions? Researchers will compare AI-simplified PEMs to their original, unmodified counterparts in order to see if there is any difference in post reading comprehension of the participants. Participation in the study will include: - A brief baseline survey (e.g. demographics and educational attainment) - A randomly assigned reading of either the original PEM or the AI simplified version. - A 10 question post-reading multiple choice quiz
Conditions
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Health Literacy
- Patient Comprehension
- Patient Educational Material
Eligibility
- Eligible Ages
- Over 18 Years
- Eligible Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- Parents or guardians of pediatric patients receiving treatment at Hospital for Special Surgery
Exclusion Criteria
- Non-English Speaking - primary occupation is in healthcare - participants with prior knowledge on the condition pertaining to the material (osteogenesis imperfecta)
Study Design
- Phase
- N/A
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel Assignment
- Primary Purpose
- Health Services Research
- Masking
- Double (Participant, Investigator)
Arm Groups
| Arm | Description | Assigned Intervention |
|---|---|---|
|
Active Comparator Original, unmodified Patient Educational Material |
This group of participants will receive a patient educational material pertaining to osteogenesis imperfecta and written by a physician without simplification by artificial intelligence. |
|
|
Experimental AI-Simplified Patient Educational Material |
This group will read a patient educational material pertaining to osteogenesis imperfecta that was simplified to the 6th grade reading level by artificial intelligence. |
|
Recruiting Locations
New York, New York 10021
More Details
- Status
- Recruiting
- Sponsor
- Hospital for Special Surgery, New York