Presenting Summary Information From Cochrane Systematic Reviews to Physicians

February 18, 2019 updated by: Ivan Buljan, University Hospital of Split

Presenting Summary Information From Cochrane Systematic Reviews to Physicians: Protocol for Research of Infographics Presentation vs. Plain Language Summary

The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of infographics, compared to standard PLS and scientific abstract format, in presenting information, in terms of understanding and remembering research results by physicians.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The investigators will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with three different formats of the same systematic review summary (Infographics, PLS, scientific abstract). The content of these three formats is based on the same systematic review, but the ways of data presentation will differ: visual presentation in plain language, plain language only, and text with scientific abbreviations. The interventions will be delivered online in January 2016, with physicians who are currently working at Clinical Hospital Split. The trial will be preformed online, and it will be voluntary and anonymous. The survey will consist of 5 parts, in the following order: 1) one format of the summary (randomly assigned), 2) health numeracy, 3) demographic data 4) comprehension test of the information given in the summary, and 5) user friendliness of information and overall satisfaction with the given summary assessed by survey.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

108

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

      • Split, Croatia, 21000
        • University of Split

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • physicians who are working at Clinical Hospital Split

Exclusion Criteria:

  • none

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: PLS
The control group will receive PLS: text format with simple explanation of the survey topic main findings and is intended for lay audience.
Text format with simple explanation of the survey topic main findings and is intended for lay audience.
Experimental: Infographics
Infographics format of a Cochrane systematic review summary represents the experimental intervention in the trial, where the results are presented with text and pictures.
Cochrane started developing infographics, where short textual information about research is supported by visual representations of the main findings and is also aimed at the lay public The investigators will examine whether this format is better in information uptake than standard PLS.
Active Comparator: Scientific abstract
Scientific abstract is the text written for the academic population and practitioners. It is also intended for control group.
Scientific abstract the text written for the academic population and practitioners, with scientific abbreviations which enables experts to go into more detail about the topic.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Understanding of the Content of Summary Format
Time Frame: One month (30 days)
The questions will focus on understanding the benefits and risks of the intervention and the quality of evidence described in the systematic review. In total, there will be 10 open ended questions, and the total score will be the sum of the correct answers (minimum 0, maximum 10). Higher scores would indicate higher understanding.
One month (30 days)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Reading Experience
Time Frame: One month (30 days)
This section of the survey will include 5 questions about the experience of participants about the text they read, measured on a 10-point Likert type scale, where 1 means do not agree at all and 10 means fully agree. The total score is the sum of scores on all five answers (minimum 5, maximum 50). Higher scores would indicate higher, or more positive, reading experience.
One month (30 days)
User Friendliness
Time Frame: One month (30 days)
This section of the survey will have 5 questions concerning how easy it was for the participant to find relevant information, measured by a 10-point Likert type scale where the answer 1 means I do not agree at all and 10 means I fully agree. The total score is the sum of scores on all the answers (minimum 5, maximum 50). Higher scores would indicate greater, or more positive user friendliness, meaning that participants consider that format as easier to find relevant information.
One month (30 days)

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Health Numeracy
Time Frame: One month (30 days)
This section will use 6-item General health numeracy test (Osborne et al., 2013) in order to determine how much our participants understand the basic health instructions regarding numeracy dimension. For each correct answer, the participants receive one point and the total score is the sum of all correct answers.
One month (30 days)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Collaborators

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Ivan Buljan, Researcher

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

December 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 20, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 20, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

December 26, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 3, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 18, 2019

Last Verified

February 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IP-2014-12-7672

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice

Clinical Trials on Infographics

Search Similar Trials