Investigation of suitable illustrations in medical care

Abstract

Visual representation methods have long been used as tools to communicate information in health education settings, and their effect on improving health literacy has been investigated. The question arises: How should an illustration function in relation to the textual information it illustrates? Medical illustrations are likely to be featured in media such as brochures and textbooks. If the textual information in such materials is so complex, what function should illustrations play? We reviewed the sociological literature on illustrations to obtain findings potentially applicable to health education and the improvement of health literacy. We then evaluated these tools to determine the types of illustrations that are suitable for the information. Of the three topics for which we developed the materials—cancer, food allergies and HEV light—only for the HEV light topic were earlier findings replicated. One key factor behind this result was that the illustrations for the HEV topic underwent a more thorough deliberative process than those for the other two topics. The results of our study also highlight the importance of third-party opinion in the illustration design process.