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Comparison of Different Frames of Numerical Information in Cochrane Plain Language Summaries

Comparison of Different Frames of Numerical Information in Cochrane Plain Language: Randomized Controlled Trial

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT03554252
Enrollment
225
Registered
2018-06-13
Start date
2018-04-01
Completion date
2018-08-01
Last updated
2018-09-25

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice

Brief summary

Participants will be randomly given one of two formats containing descriptions of health interventions. In one format, participants will have to read short summaries where results of the intervention are presented as frequencies and the side effects of health intervention are presented as percentages, while in another format the frames will be reversed (results will be presented as percentages and side effects as frequencies). After reading, participants will be asked several questions about the content of the summary and its conclusions.

Interventions

OTHERFrequencies

Results are presented as natural frequencies (e.g. the drug was effective for 1 out of 10 people) while side effects are presented as percentages (e.g. 40% participants experienced severe side effects)

OTHERPercentages

Results are presented as percentages (e.g. the drug was effective for 10% of people) while side effects are presented as natural frequencies (e.g. 4 out of 10 participants experienced severe side effects)

Sponsors

University of Split, School of Medicine
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Investigator)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 99 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Patients who are visiting their family doctor, and are at least 18 old. Students of biomedical studies at University of Split School of Medicine, who are at least 18 years old.

Exclusion criteria

* Participants younger than 18 years.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Understanding3 monthsNumber of the correct answers about the content of the summary, which will consist of four multiple choice questions (with four possible answers where only one is correct, for each question) about the text the participants are reading. Questions will be developed by research team and revised by expert in health communication. The scale ranges from 0-4, where greater score indicates better understanding of the material.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Attitudes towards the appropriateness of this type of presentation of health information3 monthsLikert type scale from 1-10 (1 indicating low appropriateness and 10 would be completely appropriate presentation)
Health numeracy3 months5 questions about the numerical tasks placed in medical content, total score is number of correct answers on those questions. The five questions are part of Numeracy Understanding in Medicine Instrument (Schapira et al, 2012), and we will translate only the questions focusing on Probability section. Cronbach's alpha in previous research was 0.86 (Schapira et al, 2012). The questions will be revised by independent translator and back translated to English. The scale range is from 0-5, where higher score indicates higher numeracy levels.

Countries

Croatia

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 27, 2026