Comparison of Different Frames of Numerical Information in Cochrane Plain Language Summaries

NCT03554252 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 214-09-7672
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 225
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

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.

Conditions

Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• 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.

  3 months

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Attitudes towards the appropriateness of this type of presentation of health information

  3 months

• Health numeracy

  3 months

Study Arms (2)

Frequencies

EXPERIMENTAL

Other: Frequencies

Percentages

EXPERIMENTAL

Other: Percentages

Interventions

Frequencies OTHER

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)

Frequencies

Percentages OTHER

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)

Percentages

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 99 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Patients who are visiting their family doctor, and are at least 18 old. Students of biomedical studies at University of Split School of Medicine, who are at least 18 years old.

You may not qualify if:

• Participants younger than 18 years.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Split, School of Medicine: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Split School of Medicine

Split, 21000, Croatia

Location

Related Publications (2)

• Schapira MM, Walker CM, Cappaert KJ, Ganschow PS, Fletcher KE, McGinley EL, Del Pozo S, Schauer C, Tarima S, Jacobs EA. The numeracy understanding in medicine instrument: a measure of health numeracy developed using item response theory. Med Decis Making. 2012 Nov-Dec;32(6):851-65. doi: 10.1177/0272989X12447239. Epub 2012 May 25.

  PMID: 22635285 BACKGROUND

• Buljan I, Tokalic R, Roguljic M, Zakarija-Grkovic I, Vrdoljak D, Milic P, Puljak L, Marusic A. Framing the numerical findings of Cochrane plain language summaries: two randomized controlled trials. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2020 May 6;20(1):101. doi: 10.1186/s12874-020-00990-4.

  PMID: 32375659 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Behavior

Study Officials

• Ivan Buljan, MPsy

  PhD student

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, INVESTIGATOR
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 17, 2018
• First Posted: June 13, 2018
• Study Start: April 1, 2018
• Primary Completion: August 1, 2018
• Study Completion: August 1, 2018
• Last Updated: September 25, 2018

Record last verified: 2018-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

CR (1)