Plain language summaries in social media in Poland

Article type
Authors
Zajac J1, Bala MM2, Koperny M3
1Hygiene and Dietetics Department, Krakow, Jagiellonian University
2Chair of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine and Hygiene and Dietetics Department, Krakow, Jagiellonian University
3Polish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariffs, Krakow
Abstract
Background: there are many advantages and difficulties connected with dissemination of evidence-based knowledge via plain language summaries (PLS) in public media. Among the main challenges remains choosing the proper profile of PLSs, tailored to your audience.

Objectives: to assess different approaches that the Polish Cochrane Team undertook to broaden the range of disseminated PLS in public media.

Methods: description of strategies used by Polish branch of Cochrane in PLS dissemination via the Facebook fan page (since 2016) and the Twitter fan page (since 2016).

Results: recipients of Polish PLSs belong to both professionals, who expect a short, brief, precise description of the review topic and its conclusions and non-professionals who look for a catchy introduction and really clear results. Among different types of post introductions that we checked, the simple statement describing who can benefit from reading the post was found to be best. Posts connected with conclusive results are more prone to be 'liked' or 'shared', though it is not necessarily connected with comprehension of the message. Co-operation with other scientific fan pages now remains the most effective way of dissemination.
Even though there are difficulties in dissemination of reliable data, the presence of our fan pages makes a difference as in three years we gained more than 1000 followers, disseminated more than 450 PLSs via Facebook and more than 380 PLSs via Tweets.

Conclusions: tracking of posts' shares is an effective way of finding out how to design future dissemination. It gives information on how the disseminated posts were understood and if there is a chance for co-operation.

Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: co-operation with Cystic Fibrosis Polish Society and pharmacist organisation.