Are plain-language summaries included in published reports of evidence about physiotherapy interventions? Analysis of 4421 randomised trials, systematic reviews and guidelines on the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro).

Background: A plain-language summary is a short and clearly stated version of a study's results using non-scientific vocabulary that provide many advantages for patients and clinicians in the process of shared decision-making.

Objectives: The primary objective was to investigate the extent to which published reports of physiotherapy interventions provide plain-language summaries. We investigate as the secondary objectives if the available plain-language summaries are at a suitable reading level for a lay person and if inclusion of plain-language summaries in these reports is increasing over time and is associated with trial quality (i.e. PEDro score). Data sources: All 4421 randomised controlled trials (RCT), systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines that included plain-language summaries indexed on Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) were included. Main outcome measures: Proportion of published reports with plain-language summaries, Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES) and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL).

Results: The number of published reports with a plain-language summary doubled in the last 6 years. From a total of 34,444 reports indexed on PEDro, only 4421 reports had English plain-language summaries. RCTs with plain-language summaries had higher PEDro scores than RCTs without plain-language summaries (mean difference=0.8 points, 95%CI 0.7 to 0.8). Only 2% of reports were considered at a suitable reading level by the FKGL formula and 0.1% by the FRES formula.

Conclusions: Although the publication of plain-language summaries is increasing over time, the current number corresponds to only 13% of all published reports. In addition the majority of plain-language summaries are written at an advanced reading level.