Trial reportMedical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making
Tables or bar graphs? Presenting test results in electronic medical records.
Trial report in Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Enhancing Patient Understanding of Laboratory Test Results: Systematic Review of Presentation Formats and Their Impact on Perception, Decision, Action, and Memory.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- A Systematic Review on Visualizations for Self-Generated Health Data for Daily Activities.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Patient-Facing Visualizations of Personal Health Data.Applied clinical informatics · 2019Pooled it
- Pictorial cigarette pack warnings: a meta-analysis of experimental studies.Tobacco control · 2016Pooled it
- Efficacy of Three Numerical Presentation Formats on Lay People's Comprehension and Risk Perception of Fact Boxes-A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Numbers, graphs and words - do we really understand the lab test results accessible via the patient portals?Israel journal of health policy research · 2020Trial
- Communicating about chemicals in cigarette smoke: impact on knowledge and misunderstanding.Tobacco control · 2020Trial
- The Lure of Beauty: People Select Representations of Statistical Information Largely Based on Attractiveness, Not Comprehensibility.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision MakingTrial
- Visualization of Experience Sampling Method Data in Mental Health: Qualitative Study of the Physicians' Perspective in Germany.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Risk Ladder, Table, or Bulleted List? Identifying Formats That Effectively Communicate Personalized Risk and Risk Reduction Information for Multiple Diseases.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2021Article
- Home blood pressure data visualization for the management of hypertension: designing for patient and physician information needs.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2020Article
- Visual analogies, not graphs, increase patients' comprehension of changes in their health status.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2020Article
- Best practices for data visualization: creating and evaluating a report for an evidence-based fall prevention program.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2020Article
- Primary Care Providers' Preferences and Concerns Regarding Specific Visual Displays for Returning Hemoglobin A1c Test Results to Patients.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2019Article
- Design and Comprehension Testing of Tailored Asthma Control Infographics for Adults with Persistent Asthma.Applied clinical informatics · 2019Article
- Website Designs for Communicating About Chemicals in Cigarette Smoke.Health communication · 2019Article
- Presenting self-monitoring test results for consumers: the effects of graphical formats and age.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2018Article
- Presentation of laboratory test results in patient portals: influence of interface design on risk interpretation and visual search behaviour.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2018Article
- Graphical displays for effective reporting of evidence quality tables in research syntheses.Reproductive health · 2016Article
- Developing patient-friendly genetic and genomic test reports: formats to promote patient engagement and understanding.Genome medicine · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundElectronic personal health records offer a promising way to communicate medical test results to patients. We compared the usability of tables and horizontal bar graphs for presenting medical test results electronically.
methodsWe conducted experiments with a convenience sample of 106 community-dwelling adults. In the first experiment, participants viewed either table or bar graph formats (between subjects) that presented medical test results with normal and abnormal findings. In a second experiment, participants viewed table and bar graph formats (within subjects) that presented test results with normal, borderline, and abnormal findings.
resultsParticipants required less viewing time when using bar graphs rather than tables. This overall difference was due to superior performance of bar graphs in vignettes with many test results. Bar graphs and tables performed equally well with regard to recall accuracy and understanding. In terms of ease of use, participants did not prefer bar graphs to tables when they viewed only one format. When participants viewed both formats, those with experience with bar graphs preferred bar graphs, and those with experience with tables found bar graphs equally easy to use. Preference for bar graphs was strongest when viewing tests with borderline results.
conclusionsCompared to horizontal bar graphs, tables required more time and experience to achieve the same results, suggesting that tables can be a more burdensome format to use. The current practice of presenting medical test results in a tabular format merits reconsideration.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.