At least fifty percent of patients with chronic conditions don’t adhere to their treatment. When people don’t follow their medical plans, it leads to worse health outcomes and higher medical costs.

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One of the most common reasons that people don’t follow treatment is due to a lack of knowledge. Only fifty-three percent of adults have intermediate health literacy, meaning that they can understand medical information.

Because of this lack of understanding for almost half of adults, doctors need to make the effort to educate their clients. One way they can do this is by providing patient education materials, such as handouts or videos. But how do they know the best formats to use?

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but everyone learns differently. Knowing the different ways that people learn is the first step to deciding which education materials to use. There are four different types of learning through our senses. They include visual, auditory, reading or writing, and kinesthetic.

For the most part, these are self-explanatory. Visual refers to when people learn through what they see. They understand information best when it’s in a graphic format such as charts, diagrams, and symbols. Auditory learners process material easiest when they hear it vocally, such as through discussions and reading aloud to themselves.

People who learn through reading and writing understand information in the form of handouts or a presentation. And kinesthetic is a fancy way of saying hands-on learning. These people take an active approach in education and use all of their senses.

As a health professional, knowing these different methods will help you narrow down the kind of materials to provide. This could be YouTube videos, handouts, demonstrations, podcasts, and webinars, just to name a few. You can determine what will work for people based on their learning styles.

For instance, a pediatric patient who can’t read yet wouldn’t learn through reading and writing. Someone with poor eyesight would also struggle to read a comprehensive handout. And older adults with difficulty hearing won’t benefit from listening to podcasts.

Without knowing the best method, you’ll end up wasting time by making materials that aren't useful for teaching. If it’s harder to determine the learning method for some people, you can ask them what they prefer.

The learning style is just one way to narrow down which kind of materials to use. Demographics such as age, income, or location can also contribute to the most efficient way. For example, different generations prefer different platforms. Younger groups are digitally-oriented since they grew up with mobile devices. Because of this, they’re more likely to appreciate education materials in digital formats. If they can access them from anywhere, there’s a higher chance that they’ll use them.

Considering access to materials is another important part of choosing the best format. If you’re going to offer digital methods, make sure your clients can obtain them. Lower-income groups have limited access to online options. More than one in six people in poverty don’t have access to the internet. There are even more limitations for those in nonmetropolitan areas.

People in rural communities could have trouble obtaining other formats of learning, such as group classes. No matter what format you choose for patient education materials, be sure to consider if it’s suitable for your client demographic.

Nonadherence continues to be a problem in the health industry because so many people lack health literacy. When they don’t understand how to make decisions or follow their medical plan, they’re less likely to adhere. Since doctors know that a lack of understanding is a cause for this, they can prevent it with better education.

The first step is knowing how patients learn best. This helps when deciding what format of materials to provide. And defining the audience and their needs makes it easier when starting to create educational content.

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