Are Physical Activity Resources Understandable as Disseminated? A Meta-Analysis of Readability Studies

Readability studies routinely report that resources with physical activity-related content exceed the eighth-grade reading level (RL), the maximum recommended for health education resources. The objectives of this meta-analysis were to determine the extent that findings in the literature represented true differences and whether production sources differed in their average RL. Fourteen studies met the study inclusion criteria. The main analysis involved 819 print and web article resources produced by government and nongovernment sources. The average RL was greater than eighth-grade (M=10.25, 95% CI=[9.62, 10.91], p<.001), a nearly substantial magnitude of difference (g=.75), with a substantial percentage of the observed effects representing true differences (I-2=79.79%). No differences were observed between productions sources, Q(5)=2.56, p=.767. Publication bias and publication date did not meaningfully affect the main findings, nor did variations in study methodology or quality. The implications of these results for kinesiology are discussed and recommendations for future research are presented.