EVALUATION OF READABILITY OF THE INFORMED CONSENT FORMS WHICH ARE COMMONLY USED IN OTOLARYNGOLOGY IN TURKEY

Material and method: Commonly used informed consent forms which are on the offical website of Turkish Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Association (https://www.kbb.org.tr) are included in the study and divided into 4 main areas. Their texts are transferred to the Microsoft Word 2016 programme firstly and then in a software programme. Mean sentence, mean word and syllable count in a form; mean word count in a sentence, mean long word count (equal or longer than 4 syllables) are evaluated according to Ateşman and Bezirci-Yılmaz formulas to assess readability. These values are compared statistically.

Findings: There were 39 forms in 4 areas (head and neck surgery, rhinology, otology, pediatric otolaryngology). When all forms were evaluated, readability points were in moderate and at primary school levels. For otology area, however, readability was at high school level (p<0.05). Even if mean sentence count was fewer in otology area, mean word count in a sentence was longer and this made readability harder (p<0.05). In addition, informed consent form of the tongue suspension operation was similar to otology forms and had a high school level readability point. When "Excisional biopsy from face-cheek" form had the best readability point, "Mastoidectomy - Tympanoplasty" had worst.

Conclusion: It is important to include in patients to diagnosis and treatment processes. Because mean education duration and health literacy are low in our country, informed consent forms especially in otology area can be offered to revise. Keywords : Informed consent form, readability, otolaryngology, malpractise, complication