A Review of Research on Written Patient Information
http://www.stc.org/confproceed/2000/PDFs/00080.PDF

Campbell, Kim Sydow and Linda L. Mothersbaugh
STC Proceedings
2000

Abstract:

Rising consumerism in the health care industry promotes the value of quality written patient information in educating patients to make informed decisions about their health. This review of research located 65 studies published in health care journals. The types of written patient information tested in those 65 studies included those with clinical and organizational content, treatment and prevention content, and generalized and personalized content in a range of clinical areas. The measures used to judge the quality of written information included: cognitive, behavioral, and affective measures. We encourage technical communication researchers to use our synthesis of these studies to develop grant proposals for studies that will demonstrate the applicability of our research and methods—especially usability techniques—to the development of written patient information.