Improving patient recall of information: Harnessing the power of structure

PATIENT EDUCATION AND COUNSELING

卷:98

Article

Langewitz, Wolf¹  Ackermann, Selina²  Heierle, Anette²  Hertwig, Ralph³  Ghanim, Leyla⁴  Bingisser, Roland² 

[1] Univ Basel Hosp, Dept Psychosomat Med, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland

[2] Univ Basel Hosp, Dept Emergency Med, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland

[3] Max Planck Inst Human Dev, Ctr Adapt Rat, Berlin, Germany

[4] Med Univ Graz, Graz, Austria

关键词: Patient information;    Information recall;    Improving recall;    Structuring information;    Book metaphor;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.pec.2015.02.003

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Objective: Assess the amount of medical information laypeople recall, investigate the impact of structured presentation on recall. Methods: 105 first-year psychology students (mean age 21.5 +/- 3.8 years; 85% female) were randomised to two information-presentation conditions: structured (S group) and nonstructured (NS group). Students watched a video of a physician discharging a patient from the emergency department. In the S Group, content (28 items of information) was divided into explicit chapters with chapter headings preceding new information. Afterwards, participants wrote down all information they recalled on an empty sheet of paper. Results: The S group (N = 57) recalled significantly more items than NS group (N = 41) (8.12 +/- 4.31 vs. 5.71 +/- 3.73; p = 0.005), rated information as easier to understand (8.0 +/- 1.9 vs. 6.1 +/- 2.2; p<0.001) and better structured (8.5 +/- 1.5 vs. 5.5 +/- 2.7; p < 0.001); they rather recommended the physician to friends (7.1 +/- 2.7 vs. 5.8 +/- 2.6; p <0.01). Conclusion: University students recalled around 7/28 items of information presented. Explicit structure improved recall. Practice implications: Practitioners must reduce the amount of information conveyed and structure information to improve recall. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free