Are tailored health education materials always move effective than non-tailored materials?

While promising, the evidence in support of tailored health communication h as not been overwhelming, One explanation is that tailored materials may be far superior to non tailored materials in some cases, but only slightly be tter, no different or less effective in others, In this study, 198 overweig ht adults were randomly assigned to receive either tailored or non-tailored weight loss materials, Participants' cognitive, affective and behavioral r esponses to the materials were measured at an immediate and 1 month follow- up. Analyses compared those who received tailored materials to those who re ceived non-tailored materials that were-by chance alone-either a good fit, moderate fit or poor fit, based on the match between behavioral characteris tics of the participant and content of the non-tailored materials. Findings showed that good-fitting non-tailored materials performed as well or bette r than tailored materials for several cognitive, affective and behavioral o utcomes. However, moderate- and poor-fitting non-tailored materials were co nsistently inferior to both approaches, The art and science of creating tai lored health communication programs is still evolving. Data from this study suggest present approaches to tailoring are more effective than non-tailor ed materials in most, but not all cases. Specific recommendations are made describing ways to refine tailoring methods to maximize the effectiveness o f this approach.