Category: We Heart Health Literacy

This year’s hurricane season has been pretty brutal so far. Parts of the United States and the Caribbean are just beginning their recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Harvey. And that leaves many of us wondering how we can take action, either personally or professionally.

As health communicators, we have a unique responsibility in an emergency since it’s our job to make information easy for everyone to understand. This is especially important during natural disasters or other public health crises.

From sharing tips for making an emergency supply kit to spreading the word about how to clean up after a flood, it’s on us to make sure important safety messages are clear to consumers — before, during, and after an emergency.

So what do we need to keep in mind when we’re communicating in an emergency?

• Write in plain language. Use short, bulleted lists with actionable headers to communicate easy-to-understand steps for staying safe in a disaster. Check out this example from healthfinder.gov.
• Be specific in your word choices. Vague terms like “respond” and “hazardous” are never helpful, but an emergency is an especially bad time to keep people guessing about what you mean.
• Make your messages accessible to everyone. Think about using icon-driven emergency communication, which can help you reach people with limited English skills and people who have cognitive delays.
• Be honest — but avoid creating unnecessary panic. Be clear about what you know and don’t know. Put risk in context and point out what isn’t dangerous about a situation, too.
• Remember that clear visual communication matters. Infographics can be an effective strategy for communicating weather safety tips — just make sure they’re accurate and well designed.

And if you’d like to donate to help current recovery efforts, check out these guides from The New York Times:

• How to Help Hurricane Irma Victims
• Where to Donate to Harvey Victims

The bottom line: Making health messages easier for everyone to understand is always important — but it’s even more critical in an emergency.

For our latest installment on testing techniques, we’re talking about in-depth interviews, or IDIs. We ❤︎ interviewing because it’s an effective, versatile, and affordable way to get great feedback on health materials, messages, or tools.

What is an in-depth interview? It’s simply a one-on-one conversation between a moderator and a participant. Interviews usually take an hour or less — and they can be done via phone, video chat, or in person.

Some interviews are very structured and follow a formal moderator’s guide. Others are more open ended, allowing the conversation to flow naturally. Here at We ❤︎ Health Literacy Headquarters, we like to strike a nice balance between the 2 approaches.

Here are some specifics about why we ❤︎ interviews:

• They’re effective. You can get a lot of information from an hour-long chat with a participant. Unlike a focus group, where you’re talking to several participants at once, you can dive deep into a topic with a single participant. And usually, you don’t need to interview a ton of people to get valuable insights.
• They’re versatile. Interviews can be helpful at just about any stage of the product development process. For example, you can interview people to find out what they already know about a topic, or you can show folks draft materials to get their feedback.
• They’re affordable. Of all the testing techniques we recommend, interviewing is one of the most low tech — and you can do them just about anywhere.

The bottom line: Try in-depth interviews for an effective, versatile, and affordable way to get audience feedback.

As you know, dear readers, we’re full of nerd love for stuff like public health books, board games, and (duh) Hamilton. But what do we ❤ the most? Health materials designed with the target audience in mind, of course. They make us weak in the knees, put stars in our eyes… and apparently even inspire us to use clichés.

That’s why we were thrilled that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) wanted to team up to create user-centered educational handouts about tuberculosis (TB) infection — and why we want to share those materials with you.

TB infection (technically known as latent TB infection or LTBI) is a critical health problem that’s often misunderstood. If it’s not treated, TB infection can turn into TB disease, which can be serious — and even deadly. So it’s super important that people at higher risk for TB infection (like refugees and immigrants) get tested for it and, if they’re diagnosed, take medicine to treat it.

Enter MDPH. Their materials take on the challenge of communicating clearly about TB infection while showcasing health literacy best practices. Here are some key takeaways from these stellar materials.

Focus on simple key messages. For example:

• You can have a type of TB and still feel healthy. This is called TB infection.
• It’s important to take medicine for TB infection.

Use pictures and icons. Refugees and immigrants with limited English proficiency may struggle to understand text-heavy English-language materials. The MDPH handouts include illustrations that convey key messages about TB infection.

Give people tailored information. Patients who decide to get treatment for TB infection have to follow a specific treatment and medical care process. That’s why MDPH created:

• A user-friendly TB infection treatment guide that patients can fill in with their doctors
• An information sheet that helps patients choose strategies to remember to take their TB medicine

Leverage research. The MDPH materials reflect target audiences’ input collected through focus groups and message and icon testing.

Address language needs. MDPH translated all messages into 17 different languages. And because refugees and immigrants with limited English proficiency reported a desire to learn English, MDPH created bilingual materials for each language.

The bottom line: Check out the MDPH TB infection educational handouts to see health literacy best practices in action!

We’ve talked before about how measurements are confusing — often, just giving your readers an estimate is enough. But when it comes to measuring medicine, precision is key. So it’s too bad that current packaging and dosing tools, especially for medicines meant for children, aren’t always up to the task of clear communication.

Take a teaspoon, for example. People who bake know that’s a specific unit of measurement, but to plenty of other folks it’s just the smaller spoon in their silverware drawer. And if the medicine cup in the package is marked with both teaspoons and milliliters? Well, that’s a recipe for confusion.

Wouldn’t it be better if — instead of figuring out exactly which teaspoon or cup to use for your child’s medicine — you had a tool that was clearly marked, easy to use, and made specifically for giving liquid medicine to children?

Last year, a study published in Pediatrics concluded that parents are more likely to give the correct dose of liquid medicine with an oral syringe. The authors of the study make a compelling argument for a “comprehensive pediatric labeling and dosing strategy to reduce medication errors.” Hear, hear!

But until that happens, dear readers, we suggest sharing the following when communicating about giving medicine to kids:

• Use the cup, syringe, spoon, or dropper that comes with the medicine. Don’t use a regular kitchen spoon.
• Ask the pharmacist for an oral syringe to use instead of a cup or spoon.
• If you’re using a measuring cup, mark your child’s dose on the cup with a permanent marker.
• Follow these other safe dosing tips from the FDA.

The bottom line: Communicating about giving medicines to kids? Help prevent mistakes by describing the best tools for the job.

In the last installment of our social media series, we shared tips to make your content stand out on Twitter. Today, we’re going to talk about the most popular social media platform in the United States — the one most of us are aimlessly scrolling through while on the subway, in the waiting room at the dentist, or even in bed before drifting off to sleep.

That’s right. We’re going to talk about Facebook.

Want to hear something wild? In the United States, 68% of all adults use Facebook — which works out to 8 in 10 internet users. And 76% of people on Facebook use it every single day.

What’s so neat about Facebook? Why is everyone and their mother (no, really — moms ❤︎ Facebook) using it? And how can you use it to effectively communicate about health? Have a seat, dear readers, while we share our take on why Facebook has become so universal.

This most prominent of social media platforms can help you:

• Connect with people — lots of them. With so many daily active users, Facebook lets you access a wide network of people (more than any other social media platform). This helps you get your messages out to the masses.
• Say more. With no character limit, Facebook gives you some breathing room to make sure your content is easy to understand.
• Cozy up with your audience. Facebook lets you engage directly with your audience. With comments, replies, and reactions, it’s never been easier for your audience to interact with your content — and for you to respond accordingly. Who doesn’t ❤︎ a little 2-way engagement?
• Be trendy. Facebook keeps track of the topics that people are talking about so you can get in on the hot-button conversations.
• Easily share visual content. It’s no secret that visuals help users understand and remember your content. And they keep users engaged, too! Whether you’re sharing an infographic or shooting a live interview from your phone, it’s easy to upload, view, and share visual content on Facebook.

There you have it, dear readers. With such perks, it’s no wonder why everyone is on the ’book!

The bottom line: Facebook is a great way to share content with the masses and have engaging conversations with your audience.

In health writing, we often have a lot to say. That makes sense — because as you’re well aware, dear readers, health information is complicated! But when you try to fit too much into a single sentence, you can end up with looooooong sentences that are hard to follow.

Consider this sentence:

On weekdays, appointments are offered from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at our health clinic at 8457 Main Street in Springfield, MO for minor injuries, vaccinations (shots), and prescription refills; there is no need to make an appointment in advance.

Did you get all of that? Exactly. And your readers — especially those who struggle with working memory — will probably have a hard time with it, too.

But don’t despair! Here are some of our go-to strategies for keeping lengthy sentences in check:

• Break up sentences so they’re 2 lines or less (pro tip: look out for sentences with a lot of punctuation or prepositional phrases)
• Turn passive voice into active voice (with a little help from zombies)
• Ditch the semicolons

We used those strategies to rehab our ailing example sentence:

Our health clinic offers walk-in appointments for minor injuries, vaccinations (shots), and prescription refills. We’re open on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 8457 Main Street, Springfield, MO.

Much better, right? As we were revising, we also made sure to put context first — covering the basics (that the clinic offers walk-in appointments) before moving on to the details about hours of operation and street address.

Want to go one step further? Think about whether you can ditch the sentence format entirely. Does your content lend itself to a bulleted list or step-by-step instructions? For example:

Springfield Walk-In Clinic

• Services: Vaccinations (shots), prescription refills, and treatment for minor injuries
• Location: 8457 Main Street, Springfield, MO
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The bottom line: Having a lot to say is no excuse for never-ending sentences. Do your readers a favor and break them up!

If there’s one thing that public health professionals talk (and write and meet and tweet) about constantly, it’s healthy eating. This is a high-stakes issue, and it’s complicated — which means that figuring out ways to help folks make healthier food choices can be tricky. Also, as you surely know, access to healthy foods is a major piece of the puzzle.

When families who want to eat healthy foods may have trouble getting them, the messaging becomes extra important. But never fear, dear readers, we’ve got tips to help you create compassionate, empowering messages about healthy eating for communities that might be affected by limited food access.

• Keep things positive. It’s easy to get lost in the land of negative framing when communicating about food access issues. Just take the common public health term for communities where it’s hard to find healthy foods: “food deserts.” Hello, negativity. We prefer to talk about “food access and security” because we want to help families and communities focus on what they can do to eat healthier, not leave them thinking about what they don’t have.
• Be honest. Know your audience. If transportation is an issue for your community, acknowledge that. If fresh veggies are hard to find, help folks feel understood — like they’re not alone in dealing with this problem. Talking about the reality of food access issues can help build trust and increase your credibility with readers, making it more likely that they’ll read and act on your recommendations.
• Offer realistic suggestions. When writing about healthy food options, make sure to include tips that are accessible and affordable for your audience. We ❤︎ these MyPlate tips for families on a budget — check it out to get ideas for healthy suggestions that won’t break the bank (like buying frozen veggies and fruits instead of fresh). And if you’re including a healthy recipe, make sure the ingredients are things your audience can find.

The bottom line: When writing about healthy eating, acknowledge food access issues when you need to — and keep your messages positive and realistic.

So, you’ve chosen the platform you’re going to use to build your own website, you’ve written some content, and you’re ready to put it all together. How can you help people navigate around your oh-so-engaging and informative webpages?

Never fear, dear readers! We’ve got some tried-and-true tips for you.

First, think about where your content will go and how you’ll organize it. Pro tip: card sorting is a great way to do this.

Next, pay attention to how a URL will look before adding content to a new page. Most website platforms let you control how the link appears. Instead of a gibberish-y collection of numbers and characters, it’s better to have “pretty permalinks” that contain actual words from the title of a webpage. URLs like these are easier to find and share.

It’s also important to design your website so users will know where they are on every page. This is especially helpful when users land somewhere on your site through a search engine (instead of starting on the homepage). You can do this by:

• Adding breadcrumbs (a descending list near the top of the page that shows where a given page is in the overall site structure)
• Designing an active state for navigation menus (for example, highlighting the current page title in the menu)

Finally, once you have well-organized webpages with clear content, link them to each other! Help your readers learn more by adding links to related pages. Keep in mind that this isn’t a substitute for good navigation — but it’s a helpful practice that will encourage readers to dig deeper into your site.

The bottom line: No webpage is an island — so give your users a clear map and multiple ways to get around.

Here at We ❤︎ Health Literacy Headquarters, we’re just crazy about focus groups. One of our favorite things about focus groups is that they’re super versatile — you can use them throughout the entire product development process. We really ❤︎ that.

But let’s back up a minute to cover the basics.

In a focus group, you get a group of participants together to answer questions and talk about a particular topic. Focus groups can provide valuable insight into participants’ knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, and information needs. And the group setting is key because each participant’s comments can stimulate and influence others in the group to think and share more. The result? A dynamic, insightful conversation that can give you a lot of information.

In the early stages of a project (sometimes called the discovery or formative research phase), focus groups let you get to know your audience. Say you’re developing an app for kids with diabetes. You could recruit actual kids with diabetes and ask them questions that get at their beliefs about healthy eating, challenges or frustrations they’re having managing the condition, or how the app would work in their dream world. You could then use the insights gained from the focus groups to shape your product’s technical requirements, design direction, and communication strategy.

(Pro tip: consider souping up your formative focus group with a collaging activity.)

Once you’ve started creating your product, you can use focus groups to explore how well it fits what your audience wants and needs. At this point, you would show participants some components of what you’re working on (like sample messages, design sketches, or a draft material or prototype) and get their reactions. Then you would use this feedback to refine your product to better meet your audience’s needs.

What’s not to ❤︎?

The bottom line: Use focus groups throughout the development process to help you create a product that’s right for your audience.