How to Report Research on the Communication of Health-Related Numbers: The Research on Communicating Numbers (ReCoN) Guidelines

Abstract

BackgroundResearch with lay audiences (e.g., patients, the public) can inform the communication of health-related numerical information. However, a recent systematic review (Making Numbers Meaningful) highlighted several common issues in the literature that impair readers' ability to evaluate and replicate these studies.PurposeTo create a set of guidelines for reporting research regarding the research on communicating numbers to lay audiences for health-related purposes.Reporting RecommendationsWe present 6 common reporting issues from research on communicating numbers that pertain to the background motivating the study, experimental design and analysis reporting, description of the outcomes, and reporting of the data presentation formats. To address these issues, we propose a set of 7 reporting guidelines including 1) specifying how study objectives address a gap in evidence on research on communicating numbers, 2) clearly reporting all combinations of data presentation formats (experimental conditions) compared, 3) providing verbatim examples of the data that were presented to the audience, 4) describing whether or not participants had access to the data presentation formats while outcomes were assessed, 5) reporting the wording of all outcome measures, 6) using standardized terms for both outcomes and data presentation formats, and 7) ensuring that broad outcome concepts such as gist, comprehension, or knowledge are concretely defined.ConclusionsFuture studies involving research on communicating health-related numbers should use these guidelines to improve the quality of reporting and ease of evidence synthesis in future efforts.HighlightsOur systematic review allowed us to exhaustively identify and enumerate several common reporting issues from research on communicating numbers that make it challenging to synthesize evidence.Reporting issues involved not including the background motivating the gap the study addresses, insufficiently describing experimental designs and analyses, and failing to report information regarding the outcomes measured.We propose 7 reporting guidelines for future research on communicating numbers to address the issues detected:1. Specification of how study objectives address a gap in evidence on research communicating numbers2. Clearly reporting all combinations of data presentation format elements compared3. Providing verbatim examples of the data presentation formats4. Describing whether participants had access to the data presentation formats while outcomes were assessed5. Reporting the wording of all outcome measures6. Using standardized terms for both outcomes and data presentation formats7. Ensuring that broad outcome concepts such as gist, comprehension, or knowledge are concretely definedImplementation of these guidelines will facilitate knowledge synthesis of research on communicating numbers and support creating evidence-based guidelines of best practices for communicating health-related numbers to lay audiences.

Keywords: health communication; health literacy; numeric communication; reporting guidelines; risk communication; scholarly communication.