Improving recall of health service information

Abstract

A group of health service professionals was asked to listen to tape recorded summaries of four health related problems (memory impairment, visual object agnosia, unilateral visual neglect and behaviour disorder). Each summary was presented in one of the following ways: 1) using professional terms and jargon; 2) using simplified language; 3) categorizing the material; 4) combining simplified language and categorization. The order of presentation was counterbalanced across subjects. Following a distractor task, each subject was asked to write down as much as he or she could remember. Results were scored 'blind'. The use of professional terms and jargon resulted in significantly poorer recall than the other methods. Simplification and categorization were not significantly different from each other in terms of the amount of information recalled. The combined method was superior to all other methods. It is hoped that this study will enable health workers to recognize the importance of presenting information in a simplified and structured manner.