Summary

Background:

Understanding medical guidelines can be challenging for patients and their families, leading to incorrect use or dosages due to inadequate or unclear explanations. Graphic organizers are tools that can help improve comprehension of medical guidelines.

Objectives:

To assess the effectiveness of using designed graphic organizers to enhance comprehension of medical guidelines.

Methods:

A prospective randomized controlled study was conducted at Soroka University Medical Center between 2015 and 2017. Parents of children aged 1–7 years, admitted for asthma exacerbation requiring the use of an inhaler with a spacer or for febrile convulsion requiring rectal diazepam, were enrolled. Participants were randomly assigned to receive instructions through a graphic organizer (intervention group) or plain text (control group). An assessment form was administered to evaluate the understanding of the correct steps for using the inhaler with a spacer or administering rectal diazepam. A follow-up telephone assessment was conducted after 30–60 days to evaluate recollection.

Results:

Seventy-four parents with similar demographic characteristics were enrolled (intervention group [38], control group [36]). There was no significant difference in comprehension between the two groups when using medical guidelines for the two interventions. However, there was a correlation between maternal education level and long-term recollection, with an average score of 24%, 42%, and 48% among mothers with less than 8 years, 8–12 years, and over 12 years of education, respectively (P = 0.004).

Conclusions:

The use of graphic organizers did not improve parent comprehension of pediatric medical guidelines. However, long-term recollection was positively correlated with maternal education level.