Presenting Summary Information From Cochrane Systematic Reviews to Physicians

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: Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Infographics; Other: Pls; Other: Scientific abstract

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

Study Locations

• Croatia
  • Split, Croatia, 21000
    • University of Split

Participation Criteria

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

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

3

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.	Other: Pls; 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.	Other: Infographics; 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.	Other: Scientific abstract; 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	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	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	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	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

• Sponsor: University Hospital of Split
• Collaborators: University of Liverpool
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Ivan Buljan, Researcher

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Osborn CY, Wallston KA, Shpigel A, Cavanaugh K, Kripalani S, Rothman RL. Development and validation of the General Health Numeracy Test (GHNT). Patient Educ Couns. 2013 Jun;91(3):350-6. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2013.01.001. Epub 2013 Feb 21.

Study record dates

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