Exploring and Developing Consumer Health Vocabularies

Zeng, Qing; Tse, Tony

doi:10.1197/jamia.m1761

Cited by 224 publications

(180 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…They also report differences in search behavior based on the lower and higher levels of domain knowledge (analogous to the difference between consumers and professionals). There are also notable terminological differences between consumers and professionals, which has led to the development of terminologies specifically for consumers, 5 although some domains have more overlap than others. 6 Not all questions have easily accessible answers: in a 2004 survey, 97 subjects found answers to 30% of their questions and partial answers to another 33% in MedlinePlus and other related websites.…”

Section: Background and Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…25 To highlight certain facets of medical language, 2 views of UMLS were employed: (a) semantic types grouped into PROBLEM, TREATMENT, and TEST and (b) individual terminologies in MeSH (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/), SNOMED-CT, 26 and the Consumer Health Vocabulary. 5 Question Decomposition Many questions were paragraphs containing several subquestions. For instance, Figure 1 (a) shows a WEBC question containing at least 6 subquestions.…”

Section: Semantic Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interactive use of online health resources: a comparison of consumer and professional questions

Roberts

Demner‐Fushman

2016

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association

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Objective To understand how consumer questions on online resources differ from questions asked by professionals, and how such consumer questions differ across resources. Materials and Methods Ten online question corpora, 5 consumer and 5 professional, with a combined total of over 40 000 questions, were analyzed using a variety of natural language processing techniques. These techniques analyze questions at the lexical, syntactic, and semantic levels, exposing differences in both form and content. Results Consumer questions tend to be longer than professional questions, more closely resemble open-domain language, and focus far more on medical problems. Consumers ask more sub-questions, provide far more background information, and ask different types of questions than professionals. Furthermore, there is substantial variance of these factors between the different consumer corpora. Discussion The form of consumer questions is highly dependent upon the individual online resource, especially in the amount of background information provided. Professionals, on the other hand, provide very little background information and often ask much shorter questions. The content of consumer questions is also highly dependent upon the resource. While professional questions commonly discuss treatments and tests, consumer questions focus disproportionately on symptoms and diseases. Further, consumers place far more emphasis on certain types of health problems (eg, sexual health). Conclusion Websites for consumers to submit health questions are a popular online resource filling important gaps in consumer health information. By analyzing how consumers write questions on these resources, we can better understand these gaps and create solutions for improving information access.

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Section: Background and Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Semantic Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactive use of online health resources: a comparison of consumer and professional questions

Roberts

Demner‐Fushman

2016

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association

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“…Reviewers also encouraged us to consider whether terminology used in the text was difficult for a reader to interpret or whether it reflected or incorporated consumer health vocabulary. 28 Finally, they encouraged us to consider as part of our assessment of "suitability" and "comprehensibility" whether the information provided in the materials was factually correct.…”

Section: Content Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Literacy Demands of Written Health Information Materials: An Assessment of Cervical Cancer Prevention Materials

et al. 2009

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(DH, CH, NO); and the Behavior Change Research Group, Population Sciences and Cancer Control Program (DH, JC) at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Submitted August 14, 2007; accepted February 26, 2008. Address correspondence to Deborah Helitzer, ScD, Family and Community Medicine, University of New Mexico, MSC 09-5040, Albuquerque, NM 87131. E-mail: helitzer@salud.unm pitalization have been documented. [1][2][3] Evidence demonstrates that patients with lower health literacy incur higher health care costs, 1,4 and health literacy has been linked to lower use of preventive services such as Pap tests, mammograms, and dental care. 5,6 The Institute of Medicine and Healthy People 2010 define health literacy as the "degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions." 7 Functional health literacy requires complex, multidimensional skills, including reading, writing, listening, numeric literacy, oral and visual communication, and decision-making abilities. It also calls for an understanding of health topics (such as cervical cancer) and the ability to navigate health systems. 8,9 Written health education materials and forms, which the health system IntroductionResearch continues to reveal the association between literacy and health. Literacy is defined as "using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential." 1 Relationships between literacy levels and heart disease, physical health, and rates of hos- most often relies on to convey information and treatment procedures, place certain "demands" on their users or readers. These demands compel health consumers to use their functional health literacy skills to read (at different levels), interpret, comprehend, analyze, and apply the information they gain from these written materials. These demands may be substantial if materials are written at a high reading level, if text and format are too dense, or if concepts are ambiguous and nonmotivating.Thus, health literacy is not a one-sided issue, limited to the capacity or capabilities of the patient/client. Indeed, the health system itself places complex demands on health consumers. These demands include requiring people to self-manage their health care, read difficult texts, and understand their health rights, as well as obliging them to find their way (navigate) in confusing clinic/hospital settings with technical medical signs or without conveniently placed or easy to read maps. 10 National Literacy AssessmentsIn 2003, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) was conducted in the United States with more than 19,000 adults. The NAAL included a separate literacy component intended to measure adults' ability to use literacy skills to read and understand health-related information. The results indicated that most (53%) adults had intermediate health literacy, and 12% scored in the proficient range. The...

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“…Without consumer friendly terms, consumers can misinterpret medical information by filling in the gaps on their own [15].…”

Section: Consumer Health Information Vocabularymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Zeng & Tse [15] discuss the development of consumer health vocabularies (CHVs), which represent terms commonly used by a given consumer group to express health related topics. They argue that research requires such CHVs to be able to facilitate consumers' understanding of health information.…”

Section: Consumer Focused Vocabulary Initiativesmentioning

confidence: 99%