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KMID : 0858820120290050027
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Journal of Korean Society for Health Education and Promotion
2012 Volume.29 No. 5 p.27 ~ p.36
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Readability of Health Messages and Its Communicative Effect
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You Myoung-Soon
Ju Young-Kee
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Abstract
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Objectives: Developing efficient health messages is important for improving health behaviors at a societal level. This study attempts to test a few variables that could constitute the elements for measuring readability of health message. The number of subject-verb relationships in a sentence, placement of jargon, i.e., explication before or after each jargon, and the number of less familiar Chinese characters were manipulated to hypothetically differentiate readability.
Methods: In a mixed factorial experiment, 152 college students read two health messages regarding side effect of health functional food and energy drink. The participants’ perceived readability was asked, and eight questions were developed to measure the participants’ recognition of the health information.
Results: Those who read messages manipulated to have high readability rated the message significantly higher than those who read messages with low readability. Also, the former answered the questions more correctly than the latter, implying the association between readability and knowledge acquisition regarding health.
Conclusions: Readability is suggested as a factor determining the effect of health messages in affecting the public’s health risk perception and relevant behaviors. Further studies to sophisticate the measurement itself and to examine the effect of actual public messages with different readabilities are suggested.
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KEYWORD
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Readability, Health message, Jargon, Risk perception
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