Readability of online and offline written health information: a protocol of a systematic review of systematic reviews

Introduction: Healthcare organisations should create and disseminate readable information to citizens and patients to reduce the level of health literacy required for individuals. Several systematic reviews have reported overviews of the readability of written health information for each subject area. This systematic review of systematic reviews will synthesise evidence from existing systematic reviews to provide an overview of studies that assessed readability in diverse areas and identify gaps to be filled in future research and practice to improve the readability of health information.

Methods and analysis: The following databases will be searched: PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Google Scholar. The reference lists of the eligible studies will be searched to identify additional studies. The eligible literature will be systematic reviews of published empirical studies that quantitatively assessed the readability of health information for patients and/or citizens. Two independent reviewers will screen the titles, abstracts and full texts of all identified literature. A lead researcher will extract the data, and a second reviewer will check the results. Discrepancies will be resolved through discussion, and a third reviewer will be involved if necessary. Data, such as the characteristics of the systematic review, characteristics of the reviewed literature in the systematic review, subject area, material characteristics, definition(s) of readability, readability assessment methods, main results and quality assessment, will be extracted. The findings will be synthesised in a numerical summary and a descriptive and narrative review.

Ethics and dissemination: This review does not involve any ethical concerns. The results and implications of this systematic review will be disseminated at conferences and in peer-reviewed journals.