title: Improving patient comprehension and recall of discharge instructions by supplementing free texts with pictographs.
abstract: Inpatient discharge instructions provide critical information for patients to manage their own care. These instructions are typically free-text and not easy for patients to understand and remember. In this pilot study, we developed a set of pictographs through a participatory design process and used them to enhance two mock-up discharge instructions. Tested on 13 healthy volunteers, the pictograph enhancement resulted in statistically significant better recall rates (p<0.001). This suggests that patient comprehension and recall of discharge instructions could be improved by supplementing free texts with pictographs.
authors.affiliation: Decision Systems Group,Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zeng-Treitler
authors.forename: Hyeoneui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hunter
mesh_terms: D001900:Boston; D032882:Comprehension; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall; D019212:Multimedia; D010351:Patient Discharge; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D010361:Patients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis