L Johnson, A Anand, A Marshall, S Seth, B Bach

1505 USING PATIENT AND PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT (PPI), DATA AND DESIGN TO COMMUNICATE ABOUT FRAILTY TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC

  • Geriatrics and Gerontology
  • Aging
  • General Medicine
Save to CiteDrive Show PDF

Abstract Introduction Despite the high prevalence of frailty among older people, the clinical definitions and implications of frailty are not well understood by the public. Existing communication material is predominantly technical in nature and aimed at healthcare professionals. This project integrated expertise in geriatric medicine, data science, user design and patient and public involvement (PPI) to develop an accessible visual communication resource on frailty that linked data stories, clinical perspectives and public views of frailty in later life. Methods We recruited three public contributors from the University of Edinburgh Advanced Care Research Centre’s PPI network to contribute to formulating the aims and objectives of the communication resource. We developed user personas and case scenarios to consider the intended audience for the communication resource and how they might interact with it. To ensure that all key messages were data-driven, we analysed quantitative survey data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) (n=7289), which included information on sex, age and health deficits used to calculate standardised Frailty Index scores. We developed a storyboard to present each piece of information. Results Using an iterative co-design process with our PPI contributors, we tested different ways of communicating frailty information and ELSA data insights. Visual elements were incorporated to enhance engagement and informativeness. Core themes of the final 6-page resource included placing frailty in the context of resilience, healthy ageing and interactions with common health issues such as living with multiple long-term conditions. The prevalence of frailty and differences between mild, moderate and severe levels were communicated using person-examples inspired by ELSA data. Conclusions We produced a communication resource, informed by a co-design process, that addresses a key gap in existing frailty resources. Our work shows the value of integrating user experience research methods, public patient involvement and data insights to enhance health communications.

Need a simple solution for managing your BibTeX entries? Explore CiteDrive!

  • Web-based, modern reference management
  • Collaborate and share with fellow researchers
  • Integration with Overleaf
  • Comprehensive BibTeX/BibLaTeX support
  • Save articles and websites directly from your browser
  • Search for new articles from a database of tens of millions of references
Try out CiteDrive

More from our Archive