Category: We Heart Health Literacy

When the weather outside is frightful, we like to get cozy with a good public health book. In this edition of the We ❤ Health Literacy Book Club, we’re curling up with Adventures of a Female Medical Detective by Dr. Mary Guinan, a memoir reflecting on her remarkable career in public health.

In 1974, Dr. Guinan began her stint in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), a prestigious training program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She describes being the only woman in her class of medical detectives (or “epidemiologists” in public health speak). And that wasn’t the first — or last — time in her career that she smashed a glass ceiling!

She became a true public health pioneer, remaining at CDC to help eradicate smallpox in India and to serve on the front lines of the early HIV/AIDS crisis. The latter even landed her a role in another book we ❤: And the Band Played On.

Along with describing these historic events, Dr. Guinan discusses the role of communication and the media in public health. She laughs about interview gaffes and recalls being misunderstood or misquoted (read the book to find out how she won the nickname “Dr. Herpes”!). Our favorite: the watershed moment in 1987 when CDC hired a communication expert to teach scientists about main messages and simple writing.

This collection of public health tales — some inspiring, some frustrating, some hilarious — weaves together the personal reflections of a medical detective solving serious public health problems. And we really ❤ that.

The bottom line: In Adventures of a Female Medical Detective, a public health pioneer shares stories and wisdom from her remarkable career.

Tweet about it: The We ❤ #HealthLit Book Club reviews “Adventures of a Female Medical Detective”: http://bit.ly/2tv1JFH via @CommunicateHlth

This week, we’re answering one of the great grammar questions of our time: to Oxford comma, or not to Oxford comma?

This tiny punctuation mark, also called the serial comma, comes before the “and” or “or” in a list of 3 or more things. Simple enough, right? Not so fast, dear readers!

The Oxford comma may seem straightforward, but it gets grammar nerds up in arms. Different style guides either take it (Chicago) or leave it (we’re looking at you, AP Stylebook). Americans use it more than Brits. It even has its own pop song (warning: explicit lyrics).

Fortunately, we’re here to put an end to this controversy and say unabashedly that the answer is clear: always use the Oxford comma — especially in plain language writing.

Why, you ask? To avoid (often hilarious) misunderstandings, of course!

You may have heard the classic, and likely fake, example of a book dedicated to “my parents, Ayn Rand and God.” Without the Oxford comma, the author is stuck with an atheist and a deity for a mom and dad. They do make a good comedic duo, but clearly that’s not the intended meaning.

And that’s nothing compared to the fate of poor Merle Haggard. A newspaper article describing a documentary about the famous country singer skipped the Oxford comma and spiced up his life story: “Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall.”

Still not convinced of the Oxford comma’s super powers? Then consider the 2017 court case decided on the absence of a single Oxford comma in a Maine state law.

So keep those Oxford commas handy — they’ll make your language plain, clean, and clear!

The bottom line: When writing lists in plain language, always use the Oxford comma.

Tweet about it: In #HealthLit and in life, @CommunicateHlth loves the #OxfordComma. Find out why: http://bit.ly/2FmTYnw

If there was a fly on your conference room wall, would it ever overhear a conversation like this? “Cool. Let’s do it this way.” “But wait, what if this way is better?” “Well, we have to pick one. So, which do we go with?” (Conversations like this happen a lot here at We ❤ Health Literacy Headquarters.)

Fortunately, in this latest installment of testing techniques, we have a solution for you! It’s called A/B testing, and we really ❤ it. With A/B testing, you put 2 versions of a message or design out into the world — that’s the “A” and the “B” — and gather data about which version is more effective or impactful.

Emails are prime A/B testing material — you can test different subject lines, calls to action, or designs. Let’s say, for example, you want to know which type of email subject line will get more readers to open your e-newsletter.

First, pick the types of subject lines you want to try out. Maybe the first takes a question-style approach and the second is a bit more clickbait-y, like so:

• Option A: Does someone in your family have allergies or asthma?
• Option B: 5 ways to help a loved one with allergies or asthma

When you have an A and a B, you’re ready to test them out. Using your email delivery system, send a random sampling of half your subscribers the email with subject line A. Send the other half of your list the same email, but with subject line B.

Then, look at the analytics and you’ll see which subject line led to a higher open rate. Pretty cool, right? The more times you do this, the better sense you’ll get for which type of subject line readers prefer. After that, as they say — lather, rinse, repeat.

Note that it’s best to do A/B testing with large numbers of participants — like your organization’s e-marketing list — to make sure you get a meaningful response.

And one last thing: with A/B testing, it’s important to eliminate variables. For example, if you’re trying to gauge the click rate with a new layout of your e-newsletter, use the same content in both options. Otherwise, your findings could be muddled. Did users respond to the layout or to a different content approach? You’ll never know.

The bottom line: Don’t know which way to go? Use A/B testing to explore 2 ideas at once.

Tweet about it: Don’t know which way to go? A/B testing to the rescue, says @CommunicateHlth: http://bit.ly/2o9MGLE #HealthLit

Since the dawn of We ❤︎ Health Literacy, our posts have focused on tips and tricks to help health communicators like you better reach your audiences. But what if we told you that you could apply these same health literacy best practices to interactions at your workplace?

Let’s use giving feedback as an example.

Here at We ❤︎ Health Literacy Headquarters, we’re big fans of giving and receiving feedback. We get feedback from audiences in user testing, we get feedback from our clients, and of course, we give feedback to each other every day. Feedback makes us stronger, smarter, and more motivated to do our best.

Here are a few pointers from the health literacy playbook that you can use to make your feedback more impactful:

• Be positive. Research shows that people are more likely to change their behavior when they’re rewarded for doing so. If a colleague did an excellent job on a project, tell them! And if you need to give constructive feedback, focus on the benefits of trying a different approach. A little praise and encouragement go a long way.
• Be specific. When you’re giving feedback, make sure to share concrete examples so your colleague is clear on what they’re doing well and what they need to work on. You may think you’re being clear when you say, “I’d like you to come prepared to meetings,” but it’s clearer to say, “I’d like you to prepare an agenda for our meetings and share it with me ahead of time.”
• Be actionable. Make sure your colleague walks away from the conversation with a plan for how to apply your feedback. Work together to come up with specific action steps — then check in later to see how it’s going.
• Make time to listen. Part of giving good feedback in the workplace is hearing the other person’s perspective. Ask questions to try to understand where they’re coming from.

The bottom line: When you’re giving feedback, take a page from the health literacy playbook: be positive, specific, and actionable — and make time to listen.

Tweet about it: How can #HealthLit principles help you give better feedback at work? @CommunicateHlth has tips: http://bit.ly/2nMRrLQ

Imagine you have come up with an awesome new health literacy initiative. You’ve put in the time planning, developing, and testing it. You’re about to educate hundreds — scratch that — thousands. You can see it catching on: health literacy is taking the world by storm.

Now, how do you make your vision a reality? That, dear readers, is a very important question! The sad truth is that most big ideas don’t make it because more attention is given to creating the ideas than spreading them.

Fear not, health literacy warrior! Look to the Diffusion of Innovations Theory. This theory describes many things, but where we see its value is in explaining how new innovations catch on. Understanding this can help you better promote and market your program.

Use the following concepts when you explain the benefits of your program to the masses. (Don’t be intimidated by the fancy buzzwords!)

• Relative advantage: How much better your innovation is than whatever it’s replacing
• Compatibility: How your innovation connects with potential users’ experiences and values
• Complexity: How easy or hard the innovation is to adopt (we’d like to rename this one Simplicity)
• Trialability: Whether or not users can try out the innovation before committing to it
• Observability: How easy it is for users (and the people they know) to see results from using the innovation

By applying these concepts when you promote your program, you’ll greatly increase the chance that people will give it a try.

The bottom line: When promoting a new idea, use the Diffusion of Innovations Theory to increase the chance of it catching on.

Tweet about it: Diffusion of Innovations Theory to the rescue! http://bit.ly/2rYimsF via @CommunicateHlth #HealthLit

Chances are, dear readers, you’ve seen at least a few episodes of Sesame Street over the years. Or maybe you’ve seen a lot more than that — and some of your earliest lessons in literacy and numeracy came from Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and friends. (There are lots of us out there!)

Sesame Street is famous for finding fun ways to teach kids the ABCs and 123s — and even lessons in empathy. So you may not be surprised to hear us say that this show has plenty to teach us about effective public health messaging.

Despite being a show for kids, Sesame Street doesn’t shy away from complex topics like HIV/AIDS, poverty, and racism — and its cast of Muppets (and humans!) is very diverse. The show helps challenge stigma by featuring accurate, sensitive portrayals of characters who are dealing with everything from autism to having a parent who’s in prison. They’ve even created materials to help children deal with the effects of trauma.

Sesame Street also excels at providing kids with super actionable messages. Characters share tips for healthy behaviors — like riding bikes safely and oral health care — with catchy song-and-dance numbers that keep kids’ attention (talk about knowing your audience).

Finally, in using language that kids can understand, Sesame Street is a model clear communicator. Check out how Elmo and former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy tackled the tricky issue of vaccine confidence — we just ❤︎ Dr. Murthy’s funny, compassionate, plain language explanation of how vaccines work.

The bottom line: Keep an eye on Sesame Street to learn strategies for communicating important public health messages.

Tweet about it: Look no further than @sesamestreet to see #HealthLit strategies in action, says @CommunicateHlth. (It can even help us #communicateCOVID!) https://bit.ly/3euamTT

Today, dear readers, we want to tell you about a documentary that has some of us at We ❤︎ Health Literacy Headquarters talking. Unrest chronicles filmmaker Jennifer Brea’s experience with a complex and confusing illness: myalgic encephalomyelitis, also called chronic fatigue syndrome or ME/CFS.

Through her own story and the stories of others living with ME/CFS, Brea offers a sensitive, honest look at the inherent challenges of the disease — as well as the accompanying struggles that have nothing to do with ME/CFS itself.

Unrest explores the medical community’s lack of understanding about ME/CFS and the implications of that for people living with the disease. Before being diagnosed, Brea was repeatedly disbelieved by doctors or told that her illness was “all in her head” — something that’s unfortunately very common for people with ME/CFS (and perhaps especially for women).

The film also highlights how people with disabilities or chronic illnesses are using the internet to connect with each other, to find the answers their doctors are unable to provide, and to organize and advocate for themselves.

We talk a lot in these posts about the best ways to communicate health information. In Unrest, Brea chronicles the harm that can result when patients, families, and doctors don’t even have the information — and how empowering it is when people are able to connect and share knowledge. For us as health communicators, it’s an important reminder of why we do what we do.

The bottom line: Unrest is a powerful documentary that offers a window into the experience of living with a mysterious chronic illness. Watch it on PBS (until January 23) or Netflix.

The internet has given us so much: Grumpy Cat, Baby Monkey, and — a recent fave — NPR’s accidental #Ramona phenomenon.

But there’s another reason we’ve been appreciating the web so much lately, dear readers. It offers a ton of options for getting people to pay attention to and engage with health information in new ways. Yep, we’re talking about interactivity.

Unlike static graphics or tables (which, as their name implies, just sit there), interactive graphics and tools do more than just show content or data. They let users make choices about what they see and, often, how they see it.

Interactive elements can give your users the power to:

• Display data in a way that answers their questions — like with this data visualization on progress toward Healthy People 2020 objectives
• See both big-picture trends and specific details — like with these Kaiser Family Foundation maps on the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid enrollment
• Dive deeper if they want more information — like with this graphic from the healthIT.gov Patient Engagement Playbook

But before your design team starts learning the latest animation software, make sure that an interactive format is a good fit for what you’re trying to communicate. For example, if you have a very simple message, you may want to consider a static graphic that packs a punch.

And if you decide to go the interactive route, check out Health Literacy Online — a resource we ❤︎ that has guidance for designing intuitive interactive graphics and tools.

The bottom line: Take advantage of the web by using interactivity to engage users and tell them what they want to know.

The holidays are upon us, dear readers. Festive sights, sounds, and smells abound, and we hope you’re enjoying the season as much as we are. To that end, we wanted to bring you a special holiday treat!

Here’s the deal: Our darling Betti the Plain Language Yeti is on a quest for the Gift of Plain Language, and it’s up to you and your plain language know-how to help her! Using your keyboard, follow the path and choose plain language words to get to the center of the maze. And keep an eye out for some of our Doodle friends — following directions isn’t really their strength…

The bottom line: Warm wishes and holiday cheer to you and yours from all of us at CommunicateHealth!