Using a word familiarity index, we studied pharmacy auxiliary labels and selected brief information sheets to determine the reading difficulty of these forms of written communication, which cannot be evaluated by traditional readability testing methods. Results of the study show that 11.2 percent of the 110 words selected from these information sources are above the eighth-grade reading level. The word familiarity index also identified multiple meanings of words and appears to be a valuable tool for evaluating written information that is not suitable for traditional readability testing.
