Developing and testing an electronic literacy resource for Arab patients before experiencing radiology procedures.

BACKGROUND: Radiological examinations require prior preparation that patients should be informed about. Radiologists and radiologic technologists have limited time and resources to do so. Therefore, the internet is a valuable and accessible resource for patient education, but the information may not be reliable, especially that in Arabic language. This study aimed to develop online patient education resources about imaging procedures in Arabic. It also evaluated the understandability and actionability of the source materials.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted at the University of Sharjah between October 2014 and July 2015. A website containing texts and audiovisuals for 21 medical imaging procedures was created. Bilingual (Arabic and English) radiology experts evaluated the materials with automatic score calculation using the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool. Two procedures were pilot tested by one evaluator, followed by completion of 28 evaluations by 15 selected experts.

RESULTS: Nineteen of 21 procedures were randomly evaluated. For printable materials, the mean understandability score was 92.37 (SD=8.355) and actionability score was 92.11 (SD=13.157). For audiovisual materials, the mean understandability score was 97.63 (SD=13.157) and the percentage for all actionability scores was 100%. The minimum acceptable percentage is 70%.

CONCLUSION: The high percentages scored for the online materials indicate that the evaluators were satisfied with the materials included and that the information would be easy for patients to understand and follow. The higher scores for the audiovisual materials indicate that they were considered more effective for improving patient knowledge patient knowledge.