Communicating data to enhance comprehension and relevance
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1
Jacob Strategies LLC, Arlington, United States
 
2
Swiss School of Management, Bellinzona, Switzerland
 
3
European Association of Dental Public Health
 
4
KMOP, Athens, Greece
 
 
Publication date: 2023-04-27
 
 
Popul. Med. 2023;5(Supplement):A1647
 
ABSTRACT
The data gathered by public health officials can be a powerful catalyst for improving health policies and practices. Unfortunately, public health data is often communicated in ways that can confuse both non-scientific audiences and health care professionals. Sometimes, a set of data is presented in the same way to different audiences without consideration of their different needs, interests, or literacy levels. In this workshop, the speakers will offer suggestions for disseminating data that enhance its relevance and impact. These suggestions can improve the clarity of data. Recommendations will also be offered for how the public health programs at universities can raise statistical literacy and educate students in appropriate strategies for communicating data. 1.Key public health data should be comprehensible to non-scientific audiences, 2. Data can help the public understand the rationale for public health recommendations, 3. Data can encourage policy makers to adopt evidence-based policies, 4. Communication approaches should be aligned with the audience, 5. Focus on the most meaningful data for the target audience, 6. Disaggregate data when possible, 7. Don’t overwhelm them with technical terms, 8. Simplify or translate data, 9. Present data in whole numbers unless more detail is essential, 10. Consider expressing percentages as ratios, 11. Present preferably measures of association to enable comparison between different groups, 12. Use longitudinal data to tell a story, 13. Importance of statistical literacy among health care professionals (HCP), 14. HCP are working with biological systems, with inherent variability and complex measures, 15. They need to draw accurate inferences, despite biological uncertainty, 16. HCP imperceptible apply statistical principles (e,g. the Bayes’ theorem) during their daily duties, 17. Although most of HCP do not conduct formal research, they need to read and interpret research as effectively as possible, 18. Importance of the Statistical Knowledge for Teaching (SKT) framework for epidemiologists and biostatisticians, 19. SKT helps to make statistics comprehensible to others and it is needed to make high-stakes recommendations related to public health, 20. A combination of mathematical and nonmathematical knowledge is required, 21. Statistical knowledge alone is not adequate to advise the public about the evidential basis for recommended health practices, 22. Pedagogical content knowledge is also necessary to enable experts to communicate data and Results effectively to the lay audience, 23. Schools of public health can prepare epidemiologists, biostatisticians and HCPs, 24. Include in their curriculum SKT in quantitative reasoning and analysis courses, 25. Include in their curriculum courses about communication and dissemination strategies, 26. Enhance students’ skills in developing and evaluating public health communication campaigns by applying social marketing principles, 27. Provide education on the application of crisis and risk communication , 28. Continuing education for health care professionals via seminars, webinars, short courses on science communication and data Interpretation. Key questions that the workshop answers: 1. How can public health data be presented or summarized to ensure that policy-makers understand its relevance and implications? 2. How can a storytelling approach enhance the comprehension of longitudinal data? 3. What role can the faculty at schools of public health play in educating epidemiologists, statisticians and health care professionals about better ways to communicate data and make valid recommendations related to public health?
ISSN:2654-1459
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