Multimodal mediation : a linguistic examination of health literacy in patient education

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Authors
Renguette, Corinne C.
Advisor
Seig, Mary T.
Issue Date
2011-12-17
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (Ph. D.)
Department
Department of English
Other Identifiers
Abstract

A case study was conducted to examine the discourse of two groups of participants learning about bariatric surgery: those who used a computer software patient education program and those who used more traditional patient-education materials. Participants were interviewed, given a multiple-choice questionnaire, and given a modified Cloze test over the content. The analysis of the interview discourse showed that participants who used the software application were able to recall and produce answers with more details, examples, and specific information than those who used other materials to learn about their surgery. The implications of these findings could indicate that the multimodal nature of the patient education software program may have been able to help mediate the complex medical information.