Participants will be randomly given one of two formats containing descriptions of health interventions. In one format, participants will have to read short summaries where results of the intervention are presented as frequencies and the side effects of health intervention are presented as percentages, while in another format the frames will be reversed (results will be presented as percentages and side effects as frequencies). After reading, participants will be asked several questions about the content of the summary and its conclusions.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
225
Results are presented as natural frequencies (e.g. the drug was effective for 1 out of 10 people) while side effects are presented as percentages (e.g. 40% participants experienced severe side effects)
Results are presented as percentages (e.g. the drug was effective for 10% of people) while side effects are presented as natural frequencies (e.g. 4 out of 10 participants experienced severe side effects)
University of Split School of Medicine
Split, Croatia
Understanding
Number of the correct answers about the content of the summary, which will consist of four multiple choice questions (with four possible answers where only one is correct, for each question) about the text the participants are reading. Questions will be developed by research team and revised by expert in health communication. The scale ranges from 0-4, where greater score indicates better understanding of the material.
Time frame: 3 months
Attitudes towards the appropriateness of this type of presentation of health information
Likert type scale from 1-10 (1 indicating low appropriateness and 10 would be completely appropriate presentation)
Time frame: 3 months
Health numeracy
5 questions about the numerical tasks placed in medical content, total score is number of correct answers on those questions. The five questions are part of Numeracy Understanding in Medicine Instrument (Schapira et al, 2012), and we will translate only the questions focusing on Probability section. Cronbach's alpha in previous research was 0.86 (Schapira et al, 2012). The questions will be revised by independent translator and back translated to English. The scale range is from 0-5, where higher score indicates higher numeracy levels.
Time frame: 3 months
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