When text simplification is not enough: Could a graph-based visualization facilitate consumers’ comprehension of dietary supplement information?

Background: Dietary supplements are widely used. However, dietary supplements are not always safe. For example, an estimated 23,000 emergency room visits every year in the United States were attributed to adverse events related to dietary supplement use. With the rapid development of the Internet, consumers usually seek health information including dietary supplement information online. To help consumers access quality online dietary supplement information, we have identified trustworthy dietary supplement information sources and built an evidence-based knowledge base of dietary supplement information—the integrated DIetary Supplement Knowledge base (iDISK) that integrates and standardizes dietary supplement related information across these different sources. However, as information in iDISK was collected from scientific sources, the complex medical jargon is a barrier for consumers’ comprehension. Objective: To assess how different approaches to simplify and represent dietary supplemen...

背景：膳食补充剂应用广泛，但并非始终安全。例如，据估计，美国每年约有23000次急诊就诊与膳食补充剂使用相关的不良事件有关。随着互联网的快速发展，消费者通常会在线获取包括膳食补充剂信息在内的健康资讯。为帮助消费者获取高质量的在线膳食补充剂信息，我们已识别出可信的膳食补充剂信息来源，并构建了一个基于证据的膳食补充剂信息知识库——综合膳食补充剂知识库（integrated DIetary Supplement Knowledge base，iDISK），该知识库整合并标准化了来自不同来源的膳食补充剂相关信息。然而，由于iDISK中的信息均来自科学来源，复杂的医学术语成为消费者理解的障碍。

目标：评估简化和呈现膳食补充剂...的不同方法