ArticleJournal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA2020
Visual analogies, not graphs, increase patients' comprehension of changes in their health status.
Article in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
39 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Challenges and Opportunities for Professional Medical Publications Writers to Contribute to Plain Language Summaries (PLS) in an AI/ML Environment - A Consumer Health Informatics Systematic Review.AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium · 2023Pooled it
- Evaluating a web-based personalized decision report for total knee or hip replacement: Lessons learned from patients.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2023Trial
- A FeAsibility items Checklist for assessing implementation characTeristics of patient-reported Outcome measures in Research, Regulation and Routine clinical care (FACTOR3): Development and evaluation.Clinical medicine (London, England) · 2026Article
- Designing Emotion-Integrated Visualizations for Kidney Function Self-Management: User-Centered Design Study With Youth Transplant Recipients and Caregivers.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Deciphering the Data: Health Numeracy and Its Impact on Decision-Making in Breast Augmentation.Aesthetic plastic surgery · 2026Article
- "Numbers call for action, personalized narratives provide support and recognition": a qualitative assessment of cancer patients' perspectives on patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) feedback with narratives.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2026Article
- Research on the design of smartwatch health information visualization presentation under different motion scenarios.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Effects of information framing cues and age on the comprehension of personal health records for self-care behaviors: an eye-tracking study.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2025Article
- Cocreating the Visualization of Digital Mobility Outcomes: Delphi-Type Process With Patients.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Glucose interpretation meaning and action: enhancing type 1 diabetes decision-making with textual descriptions.Therapeutic advances in endocrinology and metabolism · 2025Article
- Navigating normalcy: designing personal health visualizations for pediatric kidney transplant recipients and caregivers.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2024Article
- Developing an Individualized Patient Decision Aid for Chronic Coronary Disease Based on the ISCHEMIA Trial: A Mixed-Methods Study.Circulation. Cardiovascular quality and outcomes · 2024Article
- "It Attracts Your Eyes and Brain": Refining Visualizations for Shared Decision-Making with Heart Failure Patients.Applied clinical informatics · 2024Article
- Health literacy, numeracy, graph literacy, and digital literacy: an overview of definitions, evaluation methods, and best practices.European journal of cardiovascular nursing · 2024Review
- It's About the Journey - Capturing Stories of the Fluctuating Experiences of Youth Kidney Transplant Patients.Proceedings of the ACM on human-computer interaction · 2024Article
- Perceptions of patient-reported outcome data access and sharing among patients with heart failure: ethical implications for research.European journal of cardiovascular nursing · 2024Article
- Visualizing machine learning-based predictions of postpartum depression risk for lay audiences.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2024Article
- Participant-guided development of bilingual genomic educational infographics for Electronic Medical Records and Genomics Phase IV study.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2024Article
- Alerts and Collections for Automating Patients' Sensemaking and Organizing of Their Electronic Health Record Data for Reflection, Planning, and Clinical Visits: Qualitative Research-Through-Design Study.JMIR human factors · 2023Article
- A RE-AIM Evaluation of a Visualization-Based Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome System.Applied clinical informatics · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesPatients increasingly use patient-reported outcomes (PROs) to self-monitor their health status. Visualizing PROs longitudinally (over time) could help patients interpret and contextualize their PROs. The study sought to assess hospitalized patients' objective comprehension (primary outcome) of text-only, non-graph, and graph visualizations that display longitudinal PROs. MATERIALS AND
methodsWe conducted a clinical research study in 40 hospitalized patients comparing 4 visualization conditions: (1) text-only, (2) text plus visual analogy, (3) text plus number line, and (4) text plus line graph. Each participant viewed every condition, and we used counterbalancing (systematic randomization) to control for potential order effects. We assessed objective comprehension using the International Organization for Standardization protocol. Secondary outcomes included response times, preferences, risk perceptions, and behavioral intentions.
resultsOverall, 63% correctly comprehended the text-only condition and 60% comprehended the line graph condition, compared with 83% for the visual analogy and 70% for the number line (P = .05) conditions. Participants comprehended the visual analogy significantly better than the text-only (P = .02) and line graph (P = .02) conditions. Of participants who comprehended at least 1 condition, 14% preferred a condition that they did not comprehend. Low comprehension was associated with worse cognition (P < .001), lower education level (P = .02), and fewer financial resources (P = .03).
conclusionsThe results support using visual analogies rather than text to display longitudinal PROs but caution against relying on graphs, which is consistent with the known high prevalence of inadequate graph literacy. The discrepancies between comprehension and preferences suggest factors other than comprehension influence preferences, and that future researchers should assess comprehension rather than preferences to guide presentation decisions.
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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.