Design of an oral health information brochure for at-risk individuals

Abstract

Objective: Our aim was to develop written resource material for use in the Oral Health Information through Community Pharmacists project. Poor oral health is associated with cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Many people do not access dental services on a regular basis; however, they may access community pharmacies for help and advice about oral health problems. Community pharmacists may be a valuable point of oral health information for people with heart disease or diabetes. Design: This paper reports the development of the written resource material for the project groups. Methods: Brochure development was guided by Fishbein and Yzer's integrative model, and pre-tested with seven focus groups representing the potential target groups. Feedback from the focus groups was analysed concurrently and modified versions of the brochures were presented to subsequent groups. Results: The use of both written and visual messages enhanced the readability of the brochures for the focus groups with attendant Flesch Reading Ease scores of 77.4 and 79.4, while the 'Make a plan' section prompted future action planning amongst the participants. Conclusion: Well-designed patient education materials with good content, aesthetics and readability are important to deliver health messages within the context of a planned intervention. The three final brochures will be used in the intervention trial of the project.

How readable are Australian paediatric oral health education materials?

“…The content analyses of Australian leaflets revealed the prevalence of conflicting health education messages as noted by other researchers [ 31 ]. It is noteworthy that research in experimental psychology and marketing highlights that humans have a cognitive preference for picture-based, rather than text-based information: the so-called picture superiority effect [ 39 , 40 ]. Although majority of the leaflets had relevant pictures, it was surprising to note that some leaflets did not have photographs to convey important messages to parents of young children such as how to brush the child’s teeth and the amount of toothpaste to be used.…”

“…Similar to other studies [ 27 , 28 , 31 ], the present study identified aspects of oral hygiene instruction such as how to brush teeth that were not covered by majority of the leaflets. Pictures have been a useful tool in health sciences to covey health messages and would be useful for Australian dental professionals to convey the correct information about toothpaste use and other aspects of oral hygiene using illustrations as it is reported that patients retain more health information to visual presentations [ 40 , 41 ].…”