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Around 16% of adults in England, or 5.2 million, can be described as "functionally illiterate". They would not pass an English GCSE and have literacy levels at or below those expected of an 11-year-old.
- National Literacy Trust, 2014
This statistic shows how we at Macmillan, along with other organisations producing health information, need to think carefully about the language we use and how we write. Over the last year, we’ve been trying really hard to lower the reading age of our cancer information, to make sure more people can read it. After all, cancer doesn’t discriminate, and many people who are diagnosed will not have good reading or health literacy skills.
Have you used our information before? We’d really like to hear what you thought of it – please email Abi Delderfield at adelderfield@macmillan.org.uk with any comments or questions.
Macmillan produces a wide range of written information, including booklets, web pages, leaflets and fact sheets. We spend months working on each piece of information, and we need to make sure that people can read and understand it so that it helps them on their cancer journey.
When we looked at the reading age of our information, we found it was too high to reach many people in the UK. So we thought about ways to make our resources easier to read. These included things like writing shorter sentences and using simpler words. Our team has been using these new guidelines for the last year, and we think our information is definitely easier to read now.
Sometimes, we still have to use long and complex medical words, such as ‘gastroenterologist’ and ‘bronchoscopy’. But, we think it’s important to use these, as people may hear health professionals using them during their treatment. And we always try to explain what they mean.*
It isn’t always easy to measure the reading age of information because there’s so much to consider. When we develop our cancer information, we think about lots of other things as well as the language. For example, we try to use the following features when we design our publications:
Tell us what you think about our information. Can you understand the language? Did you find the photos, illustrations and infographics helpful? Was there anything you didn’t understand? Please email Abi Delderfield at adelderfield@macmillan.org.uk with any comments or questions.
*A gastroenterologist is a doctor who treats stomach and digestive problems. A bronchoscopy is a test that looks at the inside of the lungs.
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The Macmillan team is here to help. Our cancer support specialists can answer your questions, offer support, or simply listen if you need a chat. Call us free on 0808 808 00 00.
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