TURKISH JOURNAL OF ONCOLOGY
2006 , Vol 21 , Num 4
Evaluation of patients' inform consent forms in oncology: readability of the information
1İstanbul Üniversitesi Çocuk Sağlığı Enstitüsü, Aile Sağlığı Anabilim Dalı, İstanbul, Turkey2İstanbul Üniversitesi Fen Fakültesi Uygulamalı Matematik Anabilim Dalı, İstanbul, Turkey
3İstanbul Üniversitesi Onkoloji Enstitüsü, İstanbul, Turkey OBJECTIVES
The readability of patients' consent forms in research done by oncology clinics is important because participants should understand what they read. This work was organized in order to evaluate the clarity of patients'consent forms applied to breast cancer patients in our institute.
METHODS
Ten forms prepared for breast cancer patients by İstanbul University's Oncology Institute were analyzed. All of the analyzed information consent forms analyzed were related with phase 3 studies.
RESULTS
The Gunning Fog index was applied to check readability of each patient form. The average sentence number was 146.6±123.4. According to Gunning Fog index this number was found to be 16.6±0.4.
CONCLUSION
The forms evaluated in this study were not convenient for participants with an education level of 8 years or less. Moreover, all of the evaluated forms were over the accepted readability limit of 13. In conclusion, all of the patients' forms were found to be long and complex.