Regis Vaillancourt1, Michel Cloutier1, Regis Vaillancourt 2, Debra Pynn1, Julie Wade2, Cindy Preston1, Pierre Marc-Turpin1 and Aman Hansra2
1Health Canada, Canada 2 Children�??s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Canada
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Diabetes Metab
Contextually and culturally appropriate pictograms have the potential to significantly improve understanding and recall of medical information for patients with low health literacy. This pilot project was undertaken with the goal of validating the design of existing pictograms for patient counseling in the management of Diabetes for use in West Coast First Nation remote communities in Canada. Four focus groups were conducted with members and health care providers of 6 West Coast communities. The groups were presented with existing pictograms from different sources to verify their facility to be understood and their cultural appropriateness. Comments from the groups were presented to a graphic artist. Once re-designed, the pictograms were validated with the same groups and further adjustments were done. With verbal explanations provided, all the participants understood the pictograms presented in the first place; however they observed that all pictograms presented (except the one �??do not smoke�?�) were not culturally appropriate and should also be modified to facilitate understanding. Therefore, a total of 33 new pictograms were created based on participants�?? feedback. At the validation sessions, all the groups found the new pictograms were culturally appropriate and improved their understanding, with a few of them still needing slight modifications. The consensus was that the existing pictograms needed to be modified to become culturally specific and easier to understand. Detail oriented pictograms were developed for patient counseling in Type 2 Diabetes.
Email: rvaillancourt@cheo.on.ca
