Abstract
Treatment for infertility is like other healthcare during which patients consider using new technologies and make risk–benefit tradeoffs owing to possible adverse effects. Consumer-oriented educational materials have been developed regarding IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection to help patients to make these decisions. Text at the high school or college level in these materials could be improved by using shorter sentences and by substituting everyday words for certain medical terms. Applying patient communication research methods developed for topics such as cancer could help make infertility materials easier to understand, especially for patients with limited health literacy. The effectiveness of new materials could then be compared with existing materials using end points such as health outcomes and patient satisfaction with decision making.
Notes
These recommendations are from a consensus panel assembled in 2005 by the National Institute for Child Health and Development. The full report should be consulted for details Citation[34].