The effect of different styles of medical illustration on information comprehension, the perception of educational material and illness beliefs

Objective: To explore how the addition of a medical illustration and its style affected information comprehension, perception of educational material and illness beliefs.

Methods: 204 people recruited in a supermarket were randomised to read one of the four leaflets about gout and fill out a questionnaire. Three leaflets had a picture showing gout in the form of a cartoon, an anatomical drawing or a computed tomography scan (CT). The control leaflet did not contain images.

Results: Seeing an illustrated leaflet helped correctly identify treatment for gout X²(1, N = 204) = 5.51, p=0.019. Out of the three images, only the cartoon was better than text in conveying information about treatment X²(1, n = 102) = 8.84, p=0.018. Participants perceived illustrated leaflets as more visually appealing t(70) = 3.09, p = 0.003, and the anatomical image was seen as more helpful for understanding of the illness than the cartoon. Pictures did not significantly influence lay illness perceptions about gout.

Conclusion: Pictures aid the understanding of health information and increase the visual appeal of materials. While simpler illustrations convey information more effectively, people prefer more detailed anatomical images; CT scans offer no benefits over simpler images.

Practice implications: The results can help guide the use of images in gout education material.