Jc. Reid et al., WHY PEOPLE DONT LEARN FROM DIABETES LITERATURE - INFLUENCE OF TEXT AND READER CHARACTERISTICS, Patient education and counseling, 25(1), 1995, pp. 31-38
The study was designed to identify text and reader characteristics tha
t impede learning. Twenty-six adults with diabetes mellitus took a 15-
item test for prior knowledge of diabetes, a 20-item vocabulary test,
and a Need for Cognition questionnaire. Immediately after reading an e
xcerpt from a commonly used diabetes pamphlet, they could recall an av
erage of only eight of the 108 ideas in it. Readers seldom monitored t
heir comprehension. Also, the topics that they thought were important
differed from the topics that a physician thought were important. Many
readers lacked reading skills, but those with high need for cognition
and higher vocabulary scores recalled more topics. Even with an appro
priate reading level, text characteristics that could hinder comprehen
sion included lack of organization and clarity.