ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2015
The effectiveness of health animations in audiences with different health literacy levels: an experimental study.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 106 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
106 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 266 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effects of multimedia education tools on patients' health knowledge.British journal of community nursing · 2026Pooled it
- Health literacy interventions and health literacy-related outcomes for older adults: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- How effective are video animations as information tools for patients and the general public? An updated systematic review.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Pooled it
- The Effectiveness of Video Animations as a Tool to Improve Health Information Recall for Patients: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- Health Literacy Interventions in Cancer: a Systematic Review.Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education · 2021Pooled it
- Evidence on the effectiveness of health literacy interventions in the EU: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2018Pooled it
- Decision aids to help older people make health decisions: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2016Pooled it
- Digital animation as a tool to enhance informed consent when recruiting infants with biliary atresia to a clinical trial.Journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition · 2025Trial
- Adaptive Content Tuning of Social Network Digital Health Interventions Using Control Systems Engineering for Precision Public Health: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Trial
- The Impact of Video-Based Educational Materials with Voiceovers on Preferences for Glucose Monitoring Technology in Patients with Diabetes: A Randomised Study.The patient · 2023Trial
- Testing the Effectiveness of an Animated Decision Aid to Improve Recruitment of Control Participants in a Case-Control Study: Web-Based Experiment.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Trial
- What is the effectiveness of a personalised video story after an online diabetes risk assessment? A Randomised Controlled Trial.PloS one · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Four-level evaluation of health promotion intervention for preventing early childhood caries: a randomized controlled trial.BMC public health · 2017Trial
- Improving Access to Online Health Information With Conversational Agents: A Randomized Controlled Experiment.Journal of medical Internet research · 2016Trial
- Preliminary clinical changes during use of a personalized video-based mobile intervention for community-dwelling individuals with severe mental illness: An exploratory randomized crossover trial.Internet interventions · 2026Article
- Behavioural determinants of testing behaviour during a hypothetical human-to-human avian influenza outbreak: an interview study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Recognizing the Importance of Design, Content, and Delivery Features of Health Animations for Preventive Health Behaviors: Realist Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Review
- The impact of animations to improve health-information recall in patients with lower back pain: a quasi-experimental study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- "Build better bones": development, launch, and future directions of a multilingual, user-centered website for osteoporosis management.Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2026Article
46 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundProcessing Web-based health information can be difficult, especially for people with low health literacy. Presenting health information in an audiovisual format, such as animation, is expected to improve understanding among low health literate audiences.
objectiveThe aim of this paper is to investigate what features of spoken health animations improve information recall and attitudes and whether there are differences between health literacy groups.
methodsWe conducted an online experiment among 231 participants aged 55 years or older with either low or high health literacy. A 2 (spoken vs written text) x 2 (illustration vs animation) design was used. Participants were randomly exposed to one of the four experimental messages, all providing the same information on colorectal cancer screening.
resultsThe results showed that, among people with low health literacy, spoken messages about colorectal cancer screening improved recall (P=.03) and attitudes (P=.02) compared to written messages. Animations alone did not improve recall, but when combined with spoken text, they significantly improved recall in this group (P=.02). When exposed to spoken animations, people with low health literacy recalled the same amount of information as their high health literate counterparts (P=.12), whereas in all other conditions people with high health literacy recalled more information compared to low health literate individuals. For people with low health literacy, positive attitudes mediated the relationship between spoken text and the intention to have a colorectal cancer screening (b=.12; 95% CI 0.02-0.25).
conclusionsWe conclude that spoken animation is the best way to communicate complex health information to people with low health literacy. This format can even bridge the information processing gap between audiences with low and high health literacy as the recall differences between the two groups are eliminated. As animations do not negatively influence high health literate audiences, it is concluded that information adapted to audiences with low health literacy suits people with high health literacy as well.
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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.