Anesthesiology
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Patient education materials produced by national anesthesiology associations could be used to facilitate patient informed consent and promote the discipline of anesthesiology. To achieve these goals, materials must use language that most adults can understand. Health organizations recommend that materials be written at the grade 8 level or less to ensure that they are understood by laypersons. The authors, therefore, investigated the language of educational materials produced by anesthesiology associations. ⋯ Those associations that provided materials used words that were long and abstract. The language used was especially inappropriate for topics that are critical to facilitating patient informed consent and promoting the discipline of anesthesiology. Anesthesiology associations should simplify their materials and should consider screening their materials with linguistic software before making them public.