Extending the reach of science – Talk in plain language

Sedgwick, Cassie; Belmonte, Laura; Margolis, Amanda; Shafer, Patricia Osborn; Pitterle, Jennifer; Gidal, Barry E.

doi:10.1016/j.ebr.2021.100493

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…Participants frequently acknowledged that the perceived barrier of test costs was reduced by repeatedly indicating that the test was free. Plain language, a key component of patient accessibility [ 30 , 31 ], and personalization, a known facilitator of behavioral intention [ 32 ], emerged as themes identified by patients that could overcome barriers to engagement with text messages. Confusion about attending the laboratory to undergo the HbA 1c test and receiving results were the most cited themes that required further clarification in text content.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patient Perspectives on a Targeted Text Messaging Campaign to Encourage Screening for Diabetes: Qualitative Study

Lenoir¹,

Sandberg²,

Miller³

et al. 2023

JMIR Form Res

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Background A sizeable proportion of prediabetes and diabetes cases among adults in the United States remain undiagnosed. Patient-facing clinical decision support (CDS) tools that leverage electronic health records (EHRs) have the potential to increase diabetes screening. Given the widespread mobile phone ownership across diverse groups, text messages present a viable mode for delivering alerts directly to patients. The use of unsolicited text messages to offer hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) screening has not yet been studied. It is imperative to gauge perceptions of “cold texts” to ensure that information and language are optimized to promote engagement with text messages that affect follow-through with health behaviors. Objective This study aims to gauge the perceptions of and receptiveness to text messages to inform content that would facilitate engagement with text messages intended to initiate a mobile health (mHealth) intervention for targeted screening. Messages were designed to invite those not already diagnosed with diabetes to make a decision to take part in HbA1c screening and walk them through the steps required to perform the behavior based solely on an automated text exchange. Methods In total, 6 focus groups were conducted at Wake Forest Baptist Health (WFBH) between September 2019 and February 2020. The participants were adult patients without diabetes who had completed an in-person visit at the Family and Community Medicine Clinic within the previous year. We displayed a series of text messages and asked the participants to react to the message content and suggest improvements. Content was deductively coded with respect to the Health Belief Model (HBM) and inductively coded to identify other emergent themes that could potentially impact engagement with text messages. Results Participants (N=36) were generally receptive to the idea of receiving a text-based alert for HbA1c screening. Plain language, personalization, and content, which highlighted perceived benefits over perceived susceptibility and perceived severity, were important to participants’ understanding of and receptiveness to messages. The patient-physician relationship emerged as a recurring theme in which patients either had a desire or held an assumption that their provider would be working behind the scenes throughout each step of the process. Participants needed further clarification to understand the steps involved in following through with HbA1c screening and receiving results. Conclusions Our findings suggest that patients may be receptive to text messages that alert them to a risk of having an elevated HbA1c in direct-to-patient alerts that use cold texting. Using plain and positive language, integrating elements of personalization, and defining new processes clearly were identified by participants as modifiable content elements that could act as facilitators that would help overcome barriers to engagement with these messages. A patient’s relationship with their provider and the financial costs associated with texts and screening may affect receptiveness and engagement in this process.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patient Perspectives on a Targeted Text Messaging Campaign to Encourage Screening for Diabetes: Qualitative Study

Lenoir¹,

Sandberg²,

Miller³

et al. 2023

JMIR Form Res

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“…This is clearly not what readers expect from a plain language summary. Most readers achieve the highest comprehension with lowest workload in sentences containing 16–20 words (Kadayat & Eika, 2020; Sedgwick et al, 2021). If you write short and simple sentences in plain English, it will help more people understand your research.…”

Section: Tipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, a ‘negative test’ appears to be a serious issue to people outside the medical community. However, in many cases, a ‘negative test’ indicates an absence of disease and suggests a desirable outcome (Sedgwick et al, 2021).…”

Section: Tipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tips for writing plain language summaries of medical journal publications

Wen

2023

Learned Publishing

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“…Participants rated their responses on a 4-point Likert scale from 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree'. For half the key items (1,6,19,22,25,26,35,36,37,38,41,42,43,44,52,…”

Section: Empathy Quotient (Eq)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lay summaries of science should in principle provide a cost-effective resource for promoting public understanding [4][5][6]. Summaries of publicly funded research are widely available and openly accessible online, for example, via UK Research and Innovation https://gtr.ukri.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes to the use of animals in biomedical research: Effects of stigma and selected research project summaries

Cassaday,

Cavenagh,

Aluthgamage

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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Three groups of participants (largely recruited from the UK) completed a survey to examine attitudes to the use of animals in biomedical research, after reading the lay (N = 182) or technical (N = 201) summary of a research project, or no summary (N = 215). They then completed a survey comprising the animal attitude (AAS), animal purpose (APQ), belief in animal mind (BAM) and empathy quotient (EQ) scales. The APQ was adapted to assess attitudes towards the use of animals for research into disorders selected to be perceived as controllable and so ‘blameworthy’ and potentially stigmatised (addiction and obesity) and ‘psychological’ (schizophrenia and addiction) versus ‘physical’ (cardiovascular disease and obesity), across selected species (rats, mice, fish pigs and monkeys). Thus, the APQ was used to examine how the effects of perceived controllability and the nature of the disorder affected attitudes to animal use, in different species and in the three summary groups. As expected, attitudes to animal use as measured by the AAS and the APQ (total) correlated positively with BAM and EQ scores, consistent with the assumption that the scales all measured pro-welfare attitudes. Participants in the two research summary groups did not differentiate the use of rats, mice and fish (or fish and pigs in the technical summary group), whereas all species were differentiated in the no summary group. Participants given the lay summary were as concerned about the use of animals for schizophrenia as for addiction research. APQ ratings otherwise indicated more concern for animals used for addiction research (and for obesity compared to cardiovascular disease in all summary groups). Therefore, the information provided by a research project summary influenced attitudes to use of animals in biomedical research. However, there was no overall increase in agreement with animal use in either of the summary groups.

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Extending the reach of science – Talk in plain language

Abstract: Highlights Medical literature is increasingly be sought by non-medical lay readers. Scientific jargon and health literacy may limit accessibility of important research to lay public. Creation of well written lay summaries may benefit both patients and authors.

Cited by 9 publications

References 16 publications

Patient Perspectives on a Targeted Text Messaging Campaign to Encourage Screening for Diabetes: Qualitative Study

Patient Perspectives on a Targeted Text Messaging Campaign to Encourage Screening for Diabetes: Qualitative Study

Tips for writing plain language summaries of medical journal publications

Attitudes to the use of animals in biomedical research: Effects of stigma and selected research project summaries

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