Increasing Readers’ Comprehension of Health Education Brochures: A Qualitative Study Into How Professional Writers Make Texts Coherent

Abstract

The aim of this study was to gain insight into the extent to which health education text writers apply writing principles derived from cognitive psychological theory. Seventeen professional text writers of health education materials participated in a qualitative study, consisting of a rewriting task combined with a think-aloud procedure and a semistructured interview. The verbal data were explored carefully in light of seven text coherence principles that have proven effective in cognitive psychological research to increase text comprehension. Findings indicate text writers vary in their ideas and use of coherence principles to make a text comprehensible. It is argued that the health education profession can benefit greatly from knowledge about cognitive text processing and cognitive coherence principles for realizing effective comprehension of written health education messages.

Effect of a school-based nutrition education program on adolescents’ nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviour in rural areas of China

“…Finally, the promotional material used is significant. The material takes many forms and its diversity ranges from mass media TV messages to written texts in materials such as advertisements, information leaflets and more comprehensive brochures [35]. Due to the limitation of funds, this study only selected a nutrition knowledge brochure as the main promotional material.…”

Risk Communication for Public Health Emergencies

“…As people learn about their world they establish mental maps or knowledge networks that serve as heuristic devices to organize information (69). People learn through understanding a phenomenon in its entirety.…”

“…Facts are organized in ways that make sense conceptually to the individual. When new knowledge is presented, the knowledge must resonate with what people already know and how that knowledge is organized and linked to personality, experience, and culture, before it can be assimilated into that individual's working memory (66,69,98). One implication is that technical information and directives to act must be prioritized by risk communicators because lay people cannot necessarily differentiate important from less important facts.…”

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

“…descriptors were used to introduce new terminology (Kools et al, 2004). A small section toward the end of the brochure invited the reader to make a plan for accomplishing oral hygiene at home, facilitating self-efficacy (Fishbein and Yzer, 2003).…”

“…The prototype brochures were developed in different layouts and colours. Utilizing the communication model of macro-and micro-coherence, headings were bolded, and italics were used to emphasize new or important information while (Kools et al, 2004;Whittingham et al, 2008).…”