Health in Bite Sized Pieces - Discovering Lack of Accessibility and Engagement in Lay Summaries

Abstract

The purpose of lay summaries is to summarize a research manuscript in a concise, accessible, and engaging manner for any reader to comprehend. This study seeks to analyze the amount of engagement and accessibility in lay summaries as part of medical research manuscripts. In this study, we analyzed a total of 20 lay summaries, including five from Elife, Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders Journal, Epilepsy and Behavior Case Reports, and the Journal of Hepatology. One grader marked each individual lay summary using a customized rubric. The lowest average scores for all journals were 1.5 out of 5 in the accessibility and engagement section of the rubric. The average total score between Elife and EBCR and Elife and the Journal of Hepatology were both significant and were 5.1 and 6.7 marks different, respectively. The results from this study indicate that accessibility and engagement of lay summaries are not as adequate as they should be in the field of medicine. An implication of this study is that it will provide awareness and bring these undiscovered issues into the light, so that authors may consider writing lay summaries that meet the need of their audience. A limitation to this study includes the fact that there was a small sample size.