Category: We Heart Health Literacy

We don’t have to tell you, dear readers, that disease prevention is the backbone of public health. But when it comes to plain language, words like “preventable” and “preventive” sound like — yup, you guessed it — jargon (gasp!).

As much as we ❤ them as concepts, the truth is these terms tend to complicate simple ideas. If what we’re really saying is that people can take steps to avoid getting sick, let’s say that. Like many words,“preventable” and “preventive” can often be swapped out for plain language alternatives.

Consider these sentences:

Vaccines are important in addressing preventable diseases, like measles.

Preventive care is important for your health.

Instead, opt for:

Vaccines (shots) protect people from serious diseases, like measles.

Health care isn’t just for when you’re sick. Ask your doctor about screenings and other services that can keep you healthy.

Sometimes, you just can’t prevent using “preventive.” Say you’re a health insurer explaining that you cover a specific category of care called “preventive services.” Instead of getting rid of this term, teach it to people: “We now cover all preventive services, which include check ups, screenings, and counseling to prevent health problems.”

And whatever you do, dear reader, please steer clear of “preventative.” It’s “preventive” dressed up with an extra syllable (and you can guess how we feel about extra syllables).

The bottom line: In plain language writing, you can usually skip “preventable” and “preventive.”

Here at We ❤ Health Literacy Headquarters, we always check with medical experts to make sure the health communication materials we develop are accurate. These experts are essential to the process — they have the knowledge and experience to know the ins and outs of a health topic.

But when you’re immersed in anything for a long time, it’s easy to forget that the rest of the world, well, isn’t. And that’s where the curse of knowledge comes in. The more you know about a particular health topic, the harder it is to think about it from someone else’s perspective — especially if that someone knows less about the topic than you. (The Heath brothers explain this in depth in their book Made to Stick.)

It happens all the time. Remember when you got all the way to the end of a hilarious story about a _______, only to have your listener say, “What’s a _______?” with a confused look. Don’t worry, dear readers — we’ve been there, too.

As health communicators, it’s our job to be on the lookout for the curse of knowledge. You might see it pop up on a project when you’re on the ninth round of edits from the medical expert. Or when you realize that your material is full of multisyllabic jargon (not that you would ever allow that to happen).

Whenever you feel the curse of knowledge creeping in, ask yourself and your experts to take a step back and remember your audience. Ask, “What’s it like to learn about this topic for the first time?” Or, even better, quickly test the content with members of your priority audience.

The bottom line: Watch out for the curse of knowledge. Test with your audience to make sure your materials are understandable.

As the field of health communication expands, it’s important for all of us health literacy advocates to get together as often as we can. Learn new things and feel the health literacy love, dear readers, by attending a conference (or 3)!

Here are just a few of our favorite health communication events coming up this year:

Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) Health Literacy Conference
May 4­–6 • Anaheim, CA

Health Communication Leadership Institute
May 31–June 3 • Austin, TX

Tufts University Health Literacy Leadership Institute
June 13–17 • Boston, MA

National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media
August 23–25 • Atlanta, GA

8th Annual Health Literacy Research Conference
October 17–18 • Bethesda, MD

Mark your calendars — and perhaps we’ll see you there!

The bottom line: There are lots of great events in 2016 where you can connect with other health literacy advocates.

It’s time for another installment of our unofficial “use simpler words” series. You remember, don’t you? (Let us jog your memories: procedure, inflammation, and monitor.)

This week’s word, “respond,” doesn’t need to be replaced or simplified so much as it needs to be clarified. Why? Well, it’s just plain vague. Does a hazmat team respond to a toxic chemical spill by singing an opera about it? Of course not — they respond by donning their hazmat suits and working to keep the public safe.

Consider these examples:

• It will be 6 weeks before we can tell if the cancer is responding to the treatment.
• When the hurricane hits, we will respond quickly.

C’mon… we can be clearer than that, dear readers! Try these on for size instead:

• It will be 6 weeks before we can tell if the treatment is shrinking the tumor.
• When the hurricane hits, we will act quickly to keep people safe and help anyone who’s hurt.

Sure, you may use a few more words, but you’ll be more specific and focused on action. And who doesn’t ❤ that?

The bottom line: Instead of using the word “respond,” say what’s actually happening.

This workshop is designed for motivated individuals and teams working to communicate health information in ways people can understand. Join us for “Plain Language for Health: A Writing and Design Workshop” on March 17–18, 2016 in Boston, MA. Visit the website to learn more and apply. Applications will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.

Learn new skills, gain valuable tools, and make lasting connections. The workshop will be led by Stacy Robison and Xanthi Scrimgeour, co-founders of CommunicateHealth, along with Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi, Director, Tufts Health Literacy Leadership Institute, and Alia Bucciarelli, Health Writer and Guest Speaker. Funded in part by the National Library of Medicine under contract with the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

We’ve all seen the devastating news from Flint, MI. Many of us have already taken action — either personally or professionally. As health communicators, we have an important role to play in educating the public (or sometimes just our friends and family) when a health crisis makes headlines. Especially when it’s a complicated environmental health topic like lead poisoning.

You see, dear readers, lead poisoning prevention is near and dear to our ❤s at We ❤ Health Literacy Headquarters. We see it as a social justice issue, as lead poisoning disproportionally affects already vulnerable populations — like people of color, refugees, and people who can’t afford lead-safe housing.

As we communicate about the health impact of the crisis in Flint — and about the ongoing prevention efforts throughout the country — here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Use plain language to explain the causes and dangers. Watch out for jargon like exposure or monitor.
• Make sure your message is appropriate for your audience. For example, telling the residents of Flint that lead poisoning is 100% preventable certainly isn’t the best approach at the moment. Instead, focus on clear action steps that concerned parents can take — like drinking bottled water and getting kids tested for lead poisoning.
• Never rely on numbers alone to communicate risk. If you’re following the Flint lead crisis news coverage, chances are you’ve been hearing about parts per billion (how lead is measured in water) and micrograms per deciliter (how lead is measured in a child’s bloodstream). With complex measurements like these, it’s even more important to give context for what certain measurements actually mean for individuals and their families.

It’s also important to remember that lead poisoning doesn’t only come from catastrophic events like Flint. CDC has some great plain language resources on lead poisoning prevention (disclaimer, we may have had something to do with these, back in the day):

• Lead Poisoning: Know the Facts
• Lead Poisoning: 5 things you can do to help lower your child’s lead level

The bottom line: Public health disasters like the lead poisoning crisis in Flint can offer valuable reminders about the critical need for effective health communication.

Online surveys can be great tools for learning about your audience, but it’s important to create them carefully to get the information you want — especially if your audience has limited literacy skills.

Whether you’re using existing survey questions or creating new ones, plain language and clear design principles apply (surely this is not surprising, dear readers).

If your survey is full of jargon, you might be testing how well your participants understand the survey itself, rather than getting accurate answers to your questions. (In fact, if your audience has extremely limited literacy skills, a written survey may not be a good way to gather information at all.)

Keep these tips in mind to make sure you’ve applied plain language and clear design principles to every last nook and cranny of your survey:

• Write clear and simple instructions. If participants can select more than one answer, ask them to “Check all that apply.”
• If you’re using a scale, make sure it’s consistent and easy to understand. For example, if 1=bad and 10=good in the first question, stick with that format for the following questions, too. Switching up the response order can confuse participants and leave you with bad data.
• Left-justify questions, charts, images, and the Next/Previous buttons. When you center or right-justify important information, it’s easy for participants to skip over it.
• Add visual cues to help participants follow along. Number questions, be sure to use plenty of white space, and let folks know how many questions are left.
• Split questions into multiple pages. Long, scrolling surveys take longer to complete (it’s so easy to lose your place!) and participants are more likely to miss questions. Instead, separate information into meaningful chunks, and arrange the chunks in a logical order.
• Pilot test your survey. Test your survey with a small number of participants (10% of your total sample is a good rule of thumb) to work out any kinks.

The bottom line: Apply plain language and clear design principles to your surveys to get data you can use.

We’ve warned you, dear readers, about the use of subpar illustrations and photos. Today, we focus on the exciting potential of using (well done) GIFs to support your health messages.

GIFs (graphics interchange format files, if you were curious) are a great way to help deliver a complex message — like when you need to text a friend about how excited you really are. They can also come in handy when you’re trying to convey health behaviors that are hard to describe in words.

For example, you can create custom GIFs from illustrated images to easily show a specific movement — like these exercise GIFs.

One advantage of using GIFs is that, unlike video clips, they don’t need to show real people or places. With animated images, you have more control over the message. For example, this resource from the American Academy of Pediatrics helps concerned parents identify and communicate about physical developmental delays. It includes several GIFs comparing movements of a child with typical development to movements of a child with a physical developmental delay.

These animated illustrations let parents focus on the movements that you’re trying to draw their attention to — and not the child’s adorable outfit, the toys scattered across the floor, or other details that aren’t part of the main message.

The bottom line: Consider GIFs when creating health content. And give yourself a high five for your health literacy prowess!

A common question we get from clients and readers alike is, “Should I use ‘sex’ or ‘gender’ in my health information?” Never fear, dear readers, we’re here to set the record straight!

Sex is biological. It’s about your chromosomes, your anatomy, and your hormones. In terms of sex, most people are male or female.

Gender is social. It’s how your identity relates to society’s ideas of what it means to be a man or a woman.

While it may be tempting to use these terms interchangeably, it’s not accurate. It’s not always as simple as male = man and female = woman. Some people are intersex, meaning their physical sex characteristics aren’t typically male or female. And for transgender, non-binary, and agender people, their gender doesn’t “match” the sex they were assigned at birth.

For health communicators, it’s important to be clear about what we mean. When you find yourself about to write “sex” or “gender,” take a moment to think about what you’re really trying to say. (And if you’re working on a form or survey, think about whether you need to ask about gender at all.)

For example, if you’re talking about prenatal testing, you’re definitely looking at the baby’s sex. That 20-week bundle of joy has only just started to develop a nose — it has no idea what its gender is.

On the other hand, if you’re talking about which groups face the highest rates of intimate partner violence, that’s gender. It’s about how people are perceived and treated as men or women, not about their physical characteristics.

The bottom line: Resist the temptation to use “sex” and “gender” interchangeably — think through what you mean first.

We’ve talked about knowing your audience and tailoring your content, but how do you write relevant content when your target audience is very broad? Say, all Americans ages 18 through 45?

That’s a big group of people with really varied demographics. In these instances, your main objective is to not exclude any of your readers. You do this by focusing on things that are accessible to — and inclusive of — nearly everyone in your target audience.

Use these tried-and-true tips to create content that will work for (almost) everyone you’re trying to reach:

• Use common, realistic examples. Cross-country skiing is a great way to stay active, but it’s not an option for people in warmer climates or those who can’t afford the equipment. Instead, give low-cost exercise examples that could work in warm and cold weather — like walking or playing catch.
• Avoid assumptions. Let’s say you’re writing content for pregnant women. Instead of saying “your husband,” “the father,” or even “your partner,” try using more inclusive language, like “partner, family member, or friend.”
• Test your materials. Ask research participants: Who do you think this material is written for? Would you be able to do these action steps? Then adjust as needed.

As always, keep your message concise and in plain language.

The bottom line: When you’re writing for a broad audience, consider their diverse needs to make sure your content hits the mark.