Do audiences understand health stories?

By Kim Walsh-Childers, Ph.D.
University of Florida

Do audiences understand health stories?

Health journalists understand some of the key elements audiences need to better understand health stories, but they also misunderstand the impact statistical information has on audience comprehension, according to a University of Missouri researcher.

Speaking at the Association of Health Care Journalists' annual conference, assistant professor Amanda Hinnant, Ph.D., said the results of a survey she and colleagues conducted showed that health journalists realize audiences will be more likely to understand health stories that include a human element, use graphics to illustrate important information and employ a conversational tone.

However, journalists also believed that the inclusion of statistical information relevant to the story topic improved audiences' understanding of the story. But Hinnant said health literacy experts generally agree that the inclusion of statistics reduces the likelihood of audiences understanding a health story.

Among the health journalists the researchers surveyed, the majority were familiar with the term "health literacy" and most understood what the term means, Hinnant said. Most recognized that audiences do not read well enough to fully understand many health stories, which research has shown frequently are written at a 10^th-grade reading level.

Journalists were less likely to understand the importance of "numeracy" – the ability to understand information based on numerical statements – as a key element of health literacy, she said.

Hinnant and other speakers in the session noted that health scientists often criticize journalists' coverage of health stories for being imprecise or inaccurate.

But the results of the study suggest that journalists face significant challenges in attempting to make health stories simple enough for audiences to understand the key messages without "dumbing down" the stories until the information is no longer accurate, Hinnant said.

The study included a survey of print and broadcast health journalists along with in-depth interviews with 35 health reporters.