University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Meyers Primary Care Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
J Health Commun. 2010;15 Suppl 2(Suppl 2):126-45. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2010.499983.
Health messages on television and other mass media have the potential to significantly influence the public's health-related knowledge and behaviors, but little is known about people's ability to comprehend such messages. To investigate whether people understood the spoken information in media messages about cancer prevention and screening, we recruited 44 adults from 3 sites to view 6 messages aired on television and the internet. Participants were asked to paraphrase main points and selected phrases. Qualitative analysis methods were used to identify what content was correctly and accurately recalled and paraphrased, and to describe misunderstandings and misconceptions. While most participants accurately recalled and paraphrased the gist of the messages used here, overgeneralization (e.g., believing preventative behaviors to be more protective than stated), loss of details (e.g., misremembering the recommended age for screening), and confusion or misunderstandings around specific concepts (e.g., interpreting "early stage" as the stage in one's life rather than cancer stage) were common. Variability in the public's ability to understand spoken media messages may limit the effectiveness of both pubic health campaigns and provider-patient communication. Additional research is needed to identify message characteristics that enhance understandability and improve comprehension of spoken media messages about cancer.
电视和其他大众媒体上的健康信息有可能对公众的健康相关知识和行为产生重大影响，但人们对理解此类信息的能力知之甚少。为了调查人们是否理解媒体有关癌症预防和筛查信息中所说的内容，我们从 3 个地点招募了 44 名成年人，让他们观看在电视和互联网上播出的 6 条信息。要求参与者对要点和选定的短语进行释义。我们采用定性分析方法来确定正确准确地回忆和释义的内容，并描述误解和错误概念。虽然大多数参与者准确地回忆和释义了这里使用的信息要点，但也存在过度概括（例如，认为预防行为比陈述的更具保护作用）、丢失细节（例如，记错筛查建议年龄）以及对特定概念的混淆或误解（例如，将“早期阶段”解释为人生阶段而不是癌症阶段）等问题。公众理解口语媒体信息的能力存在差异，可能会限制公共卫生运动和医患沟通的有效性。需要进一步研究以确定增强口语媒体信息可理解性并提高对癌症相关口语媒体信息理解的信息特征。
