Is There a Diference Between the Readabilities of Informed Consent Forms Used for Procedures in the Emergency Services of State and University Hospitals in Turkey? Leyla Ozturk Sonmez 1,2 , Mehmet Giray Sonmez 3 , Mustafa Kursat Ayranci 1 , Togay Evrin 4 , Burak Katipoglu 4 , Basar Cander 1 1 Department of Emergency Medicine, Necmettin Erbakan University Meram School of Medicine, Konya, Turkey 2 Department of Physiology, Selcuk University School of Medicine, Konya, Turkey 3 Department of Urology, Necmettin Erbakan University Meram School of Medicine, Konya, Turkey 4 Department of Emergency Medicine, Ufuk University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey Introduction The negative perception of being ill causes the need of being aware of the phases the patients will go through. People should acquire, encode, preserve, and process information to better understand the intervention phase. It should also be considered that reading a text is an activity, including caution, memory, understanding, and knowledge. Memory is the amount of information that can be processed, formed, This study was presented in 5 th Intercontinental Emergency Medicine and International Critical Care and Emergency Medicine Congress, Antalya, Turkey. Corresponding Author: Mehmet Giray Sonmez e-mail: drgiraysonmez@gmail.com Received: 23.05.2018 • Accepted: 13.08.2018 ©Copyright 2018 by Emergency Physicians Association of Turkey - Available online at www.eajem.com DOI: 10.5152/eajem.2018.17363 Abstract Aim: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the readability levels of informed consent forms (ICFs) used for procedures in the emergency services of state and university hospitals by comparing through readability formulas. Materials and Methods: ICFs used in emergency medicine clinics in diferent university and state hospitals in Turkey were collected, and forms that were the same were included in the evaluation only once. A total of 32 ICFs, with 15 from university hospitals and 17 from state hospitals, were evaluated. Average word number, syllable number, and words with syllable number of four and above were calculated. Diferent formulas were used to determine readability levels. Results: Although the readability of ICFs used in university hospitals was found to be better than those in state hospitals, the readability levels of the ICFs for both groups were detected to have medium difculty according to the Atesman formula, very difcult according to the Flesch-Kincaid formula, difcult according to the Gunning-Fog formula, and at high school level according to the Bezirci-Yilmaz formula. Conclusion: In conclusion, the readability rates of emergency procedure ICFs in both state hospitals and university hospitals were detected to be rather low according to the present study. The education level of our country and the local environment should be considered while preparing these ICFs. Keywords: Emergency medicine, informed consent form, readability, understandability 193 Original Article EURASIAN JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE Cite this article as: Ozturk Sonmez L, Sonmez MG, Ayranci MK, Evrin T, Katipoglu B, Cander B. Is There a Diference Between the Readabilities of Informed Consent Forms Used for Procedures in the Emergency Services of State and University Hospitals in Turkey? Eurasian J Emerg Med. 2018; 17 (4): 193-8. ORCID IDs of the authors: L.O.S. 0000-0003-0201-4468; M.G.S. 0000-0003-46157348; M.K.A. 0000-0002-7196-0856; T.E. 0000-0002-8306- 4303; B.K. 0000-0002-7950-824X; B.C. 0000-0003-1035-1907.