Health education materials for Arab patients: content and design preferences

Objective: To investigate the content and design preferences of printed health education leaflets among Arab patients.

Materials and methods: A survey questionnaire to 17 subjects (women: n = 8, men: n = 9; age range 17-70 years) and three focus-group discussions (total 16 participants) were used to assess preferences by showing samples of Arabic health education materials. The questionnaire was administered by interviewers. For the focus-group discussions, the sessions were conducted by a trained interviewer, audio recorded and analyzed thematically. The subjects' educational level was from no formal schooling to university level.

Results: In survey component, all patients preferred photographs over clipart. Typeface ('font') preferences were for Simplified Arabic in 8 subjects (47%) and Mudir MT in 7 (41%); the 16-point font size was favored by 14 (82%) patients. In the three focus-group discussions, themes that participants expressed included use of standard Arabic with local dialects, short sentences, and culturally appropriate advice with practical and quantifiable examples.

Conclusions: The participants preferred health education materials to be color trifold brochures illustrated with pictures and not clipart and written in Arabic using the Simplified Arabic font in 16-point size.