Improving comprehension in patients with low literacy

Ip, Melissa. “Keys to Clear Communication: How to Improve Comprehension Among Patients with Limited Health Literacy.” Today’s Dietician 12, no 5 (May 2010). http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/050310p26.shtml (accessed March 21, 2011).

In this article from Today's Dietician, Melissa Ip describes techniques dieticians and other health professionals can use when communicating concepts to patients. Ip cites an Institute of Medicine Report that found that most consumers of health information don't understand what has been written for them. She also states that nearly 40% of Americans have basic or below basic literacy levels. Minority populations, older adults, and people with a limited income are most at risk of low literacy.

Ip outlines ways to assess a patient's health literacy level, including using the REALM-R (a literacy assessment tool for adults who speak English). She also notes that health literacy is affected by a variety of other factors, including visual literacy, numeracy, computer skills, and visual, audittory, and cognitive factors. Some experts recommend taking a "universal precautions" approach, where the health professional assumes that all patients have trouble understanding health information.

Ip makes an inportant point when addressing health materials translated into a patient's native language. People from different cultures/ethnicities may have limited literacy in their native language. Also, direct translations from English may not be culturally relevant to the end user.

This article provides a laundry list of methods that health professionals can use to better ccommunicate with their patients. It does cover the use of visuals, stating that using pictures in health education materials can increase comprehension and recall. While probably most useful for a health writer or health professional, this article cites many statistics about health literacy, and provides practical methods for creating effective health materials for patients.

Effects of presentation order and communication modality on recall and attitude

Unnava, H. Rao, Robert E. Burnkrant, and Sunil Erevelles. 1994. Effects of presentation order and communication modality on recall and attitude. Journal of Consumer Research 21: 481–490.

In this article, the authors demonstrate how to develop effective communications by examining the ways in which consumers construct messages through memory based judgments. They discuss the differences between print and audio modes of communication, and argue that the order of presentation and recall affect the attitudes of consumers and hence the effectiveness of communication methods. Visual communication and audio communication have stimuli which consumers encode differently, so the authors compare the two, posing such questions as, “Should the most important information be placed first or last for enhanced effectiveness?”

The authors performed two separate experiments focusing on the modes of communication, consumer attitude, and recall. Experiment one proved that information presented first, or at the beginning of a message, is recalled first when presented auditorily but not when presented visually. Experiment two found that recall and attitude are positively correlated. The authors also found that consumers who hear information are affected by the order of presentation more so than those who see the information.

I believe this article provides useful information for those studying visual communication. The information would be a good supplemental source that may help deepen understanding of communication. In regards to real life application, the authors suggest their findings to be beneficial to copy editors, advertisers, teachers or salespersons. The authors also discuss the limitations of their study and offer suggestions to those who would like to further their research. The article is a bit dated, as it was published in 1994, but I believe the information discussed is fairly basic and still applicable to today.