Abstract Introduction
In public health, data and information is often used to understand issues and determine spending priorities. A large body of evidence that suggests that how data is presented has an impact on understanding, yet comparatively little is known about the impact of data presentation on subsequent decision-making. This study aims to investigate whether graph titles can influence decisions, and to establish a pragmatic evaluation method that could be applied to a range of presentations of data in the future.
Methods
A mixed methods design will be used in which public health professionals will be randomly assigned to either a control or intervention condition. Intervention conditions will involve changing graph titles to include 1) interpretation of what the graph shows and 2) an attention-grabbing headline format. The same data will be presented to the participants, and allocation of hypothetical resources will be measured. Additionally, qualitative information will be collected about which elements of the graphs participants felt had an impact on their decision.
Results
Work is ongoing; full results would be available for the conference. It is hypothesised that the intervention conditions involving a headline or informative title would result in greatest resource allocation.Why this is importantThe way that information is presented has an impact on understanding, but can it also have an impact on decision making? If so, this has implications for the way that information is presented within public health policy and practice. External funding details