A Guideline of Creating Easy-to-Understand Health Education Materials

Abstract

This article is intended to provide guidelines of developing the quality of health education materials leading to the improvement of health literacy. By applying the practice of health information communication, in addition to international principles of health material development into the guidelines, materials could effectively inform patients of Siriraj Hospital and the public. Healthcare materials should be academically accurate, direct and well designed in order to reach its maximize potential which is to influence healthy behaviors among the reader. The authors divided the guideline into two parts: creating appropriate scope of content and designing information to be easy to understand. The first part includes analyzing the target audience, factors and determining main points and contents. The second part includes designing central message through tailoring content, optimizing colors, fonts, sizes, pictures and composition. Despite the fact that this article’s direct aim is print media, a diverse channel of health communication is also suggested to follow. Furthermore, organizations with missions involving creating the health education materials could adopt these guidelines to provide a better and more effective health communication between professionals and target groups.