Pretesting Health Promotion Leaflets—A Case Study

Abstract

Printed materials form part of health promotion departments' overall strategy and on the basis of current demand are likely to continue to do this for the foreseeable future. A great deal is known about the most effective ways of communicating through the written word. Readability tests, text and layout design all contribute to improving the way in which information is communicated. This paper uses a case study, which describes the development and pretesting of a leaflet on healthy eating, to demonstrate that it is also important for the written information to reflect the values, language and concerns of the target group.Pretesting is a vital element in the process of developing written information. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the easier to reach groups have largely made significant lifestyle changes, particularly in relation to smoking and eating habits. With high smoking rates and poor diet increasingly concentrated among the lower socioeconomic groups, it is vital that more innovative and effective ways of helping people to change be developed. Research suggests that health education/promotion initiatives must acknowledge and reflect people's needs. Since written materials are central to health education/promotion activities, it is important that this approach be incorporated into their development through careful pretesting. This means that they can be written to be more relevant to and reflect more realistically the values, language and lifestyles of the target group.

Assessment of consumer food safety education provided by local authorities in the UK

“…A wide variety of intervention formats were reported to be used for LA promotion of consumer food hygiene information including printed matter, telephone advice, posters, stickers, videos, reminder aids and the Internet. The production and distribution of leaflets is considered to be a mainstay of health education and promotion activities (Fraser and Smith, 1997) and findings from this study suggested that currently, leaflets are the most common intervention format used for the provision of consumer food hygiene information in the UK. The effectiveness of communication using written information in the form of leaflets has been widely debated.…”

“…Some workers have reported that leaflets alone have resulted in an increase of knowledge for the short and long term (Paul and Redman, 1997), and other research has indicated that printed leaflets can bring about positive attitude change (Harvey et al , 2000). There is evidence to suggest the appropriate use of leaflets can be effective in helping people to make changes (Fraser and Smith, 1997) yet no available data suggests that leaflets alone can bring about actual behavioural change. It is believed that the real value of leaflets lies in their combined use with other strategies, especially those concerning interpersonal support (Griffith et al , 1994; Tones and Tilford, 1996).…”

A rapid appraisal method for the selection and pre-testing of environmental health leaflets

“…In a survey of professional groups. Murphy and Smith (1992) found that each of the groups thought there would continue to be an important use for printed leaflets in their work and Frazer and Smith (1997) showed that the demand for printed material remains high, despite other methods of communication becoming available.…”

Designing an Information Leaflet: using consumer-oriented research to inform the development of a drug resource for children

“…The drawand-write method was judged to be a tool that allowed children an opportunity to present their own needs and views of the world. It was also judged to be an alternative to traditional models where materials are developed with expert input and then piloted with the target audience (Farrant & Russell, 1986;Fraser et al, 1997).…”