Presenting Summary Information From Cochrane Systematic Reviews

Presenting Summary Information From Cochrane Systematic Reviews: Randomized Controlled Trial of Infographics Presentation vs. Standard Word Summaries

The objective of the investigators study is to evaluate the efficacy of infographics in presenting information, in terms of understanding and remembering research results, compared to standard PLS formats and scientific summary formats (SciSum).

The investigators will conduct a randomized control trial (RCT) with three different formats of the same systematic review summary (infographics, PLS and scientific summary). The content of these three formats is based on the same systematic review, but the ways of data presentation will differ: visual presentation, plain language, and scientific language. The trial will be performed at the beginning of the 2016/2017 academic year, with first year university students as participants. The trial will be voluntary and anonymous. The survey will consist of 4 parts: 1) demographic data, 2) one format of the summary (randomly assigned), 3) comprehension test of the information given in the summary, 4) accessibility of information and overall satisfaction with the given summary assessed by survey and 5) health numeracy test. All materials will be in Croatian. The materials used in this research will be assessed by experts in order to confirm face validity of developed questions.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Eligible participants will be first-year university students without experience with Cochrane review summaries, because prior familiarization with Cochrane summaries could make information uptake easier by those participants.

Exclusion criteria:

• Participants who give the positive answer to the survey question about familiarity with the Cochrane will be excluded from the study analysis.