BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1540529
Development and evaluation of training programs to improve health checkup recommendation materials
Provisionally accepted- Teikyo University, Itabashi, Japan
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Background: Health communication materials must be easily understood by the target readers. Although numerous efforts have been made to recommend preventive services, the training of practitioners to create effective recommendation materials is insufficient. This study verifies whether the training provided to practitioners could lead to improvements in the recommendation materials using a checklist based on the suitability assessment of materials (SAM).Methods: This study targeted the public health insurers in Tokyo. Individual and group training was provided to improve the recommendation materials of specific health checkups using a checklist with reference to the SAM. The materials (flyers, postcards, leaflets, etc.) created by the insurers were evaluated by six randomly assigned evaluators. A suitability score indicating the appropriateness of the material was calculated using an evaluation manual to verify the improvements in the materials before and after the training.Results: Of the 49 insurers who participated in the training, 31 evaluated the materials both before and after the training. The mean suitability score [standard deviation] increased from 48.6 [7.9] before training to 51.6 [8.7] after training, although the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.09). However, statistically significant increases were observed in four items: information essential for undergoing health checkups, clear titles and captions that explain graphic content, consistent and readable layout, and sufficient margins and line spacing.SAM-based training led to limited improvements in the recommendation materials created by insurers. Providing more thoughtfully designed training to insurers is expected to increase effective health communication materials that encourage recipients to take action.
Keywords: Health checkups, Insurer, health insurance, behavior change, Public Health
Received: 05 Dec 2024; Accepted: 18 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ogawa, Ishikawa and Fukuda. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yoshiharu Fukuda, Teikyo University, Itabashi, Japan
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.