[An assessment of the acceptance of a face graph as a health education device]

With the aging of society, an increasingly greater number of people receive health evaluations organized by the community. Results of health evaluations are usually obtained as multiphasic numerical figures which are usually written down directly into a prescribed results form by which the community health personnel inform examinees of their health status. Most of aged examinee, however, cannot fully comprehend their own health status expressed as multiphasic numerical figures. Community health personnel also have difficulty in explaining these numerical results. Although the cartoon of face has been shown to be an effective device to help understand multiphasic numerical values, its use is not yet popular among community health personnel. The use of a face graph as an aid for health information and education activities by community health personnel was studied using a simple face drawing system developed for lap-top microcomputers. In this study, the acceptability of this face was evaluated by 29 community health nursing students and 31 community health nurses, studying and/or working in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. The first evaluation was made of a newly developed prescribed health evaluation result form using a face graph (facial form). All subjects evaluated the acceptability of this facial form by comparing it to the usual numerical form on the basis of the following five items: (1) discrimination of abnormal range, (2) evaluation of the degree of abnormality, (3) discrimination of normal range, (4) provocation of interest in one's own health status, and (5) stimulation of familiarity in one's own health status.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)