Health Promotion Activity: Critical Analysis of Hepatitis C Leaflet

This report critically analyzes a health promotion leaflet focused on Hepatitis C. The analysis evaluates the leaflet's suitability for health promotion campaigns, considering its content's relevance, readability, and design. The report examines the leaflet's ability to inform the target audience about Hepatitis C, including its causes, risk factors, diagnosis, and control measures. It assesses the leaflet's effectiveness as a communication tool, considering factors like language simplicity, layout, and the inclusion of visual elements. The report also highlights the importance of providing comprehensive information, including symptoms, ways of contracting the illness, and resources for further support. The leaflet's strengths, such as its cost-effectiveness and ability to reach diverse populations, are discussed, alongside its weaknesses, such as the lack of detailed information and visual aids. The report concludes with recommendations for improving the leaflet's design and content to enhance its impact on health awareness and promotion.

Running head: HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

1HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
Analysis of Health promotion leaflet on Hepatitis C
Health promotion activities are normally geared towards the promotion of good health
and prevention of ill health. It sometimes aims to focus on certain group of people for the risk of
diseases 1. The main aim of the health promotion activities is to inform the people about the
initiatives that can make them healthy or protect them from diseases. Health promotion can be
done by a number of means depending upon the clinical condition and the target group 1. This
essay will aim to critically analyses or appraise the health promotion leaflet related to hepatitis C.
The paper will throw light upon the factors that makes it suitable for the health promotion
campaign, the sources, the relevancy of the contents and the optimum readability status of the
content. The paper will also critically appraise and criticize the leaflet designs and the layout. A
small overview of the target audiences have also been taken into consideration.
Hepatitis C is caused by a virus that actually infects a liver that may cause liver cirrhosis,
liver, failure or liver cancer 2. The leaflet contained information regarding the portals of entry of
the disease, the pathogenesis of the disease, the risk factors and the probable diagnosis of the
disease. The leaflet also contained information about the tests that can confirm the occurrence of
the disease.
1N. Corcoran, ed., 2013. Communicating health: strategies for health promotion. Sage.
2 T.C .Martin, N.K. Martin, M. Hickman, P. Vickerman, E.E.Page, R. Everett, B.G. Gazzard, and M. Nelson2013.
Hepatitis C virus reinfection incidence and treatment outcome among HIV-positive MSM. Aids, 27(16), pp.2551-
2557.

2HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
The 2004, UK white paper “better information, better choices, better health’ proposed some
strategies for improving the dissemination of the health information to the customers or the
clients. Each and everybody should have access to high quality of information, health
professionals should be able to communicate with the general public and spread awareness3. In
spite of the extensive advertisements using telephone, digital and social media, and many
consumers still do not have the access to the necessary information or information in a way that
they can understand. Hence the increasing prevalence of the hepatitis C in UK and the urge of
the health professionals to connect with the common people, a very normal form of
communication were chosen to spread awareness among the people who find it difficult top
access digital or social media 4. The leaflet has been chosen as a health promotion tool in order to
raise awareness regarding he risk factors associated with the contraction of Hepatitis C.
An average pharmacy is encountered with a large number of populations and this
provides the opportunities for health education and health promotion. The health care
professionals can assist the pharmacies about spreading the education for the safety protocols
regarding the transmission of the STDs. The pharmacists can help to prevent hepatitis C by
providing the leaflets but it can also increase the risk of the over reliance on the factors and
hence there should be opportunities for discussing the concerns5.
3 E.GowerEstes, S. Blach, K. Razavi-Shearer, and H. Razavi, 2014. Global epidemiology and genotype distribution
of the hepatitis C virus infection. Journal of hepatology, 61(1), pp.S45-S57.
4 A.Colledge, J. Car, A. Donnelly, and A. Majeed, 2008. Health information for patients: time to look beyond
patient information leaflets. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 101(9), 447–453.
http://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.2008.080149

3HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
The leaflet is an effective medium of the health promotion campaign. The leaflet
contained several information regarding the websites where all the fact sheets about the current
prevalence of the hepatitis C, the current health promotion activities going on and more is
provided. The principle benefit of an information leaflet is that it provides a concise guidance
towards any forms of research12. It summarizes the key information of any health promotion
activity at a glance. The potential of the leaflet is that the person receiving this can preserve this
or can show it to the other people as well after there is no contact with the researcher 6. Since the
purpose of the research is health promotion, hence the language of the leaflet is kept simple for
the common people to comprehend. Leaflet is an effective way to communicate with the
common public or to spread health awareness among the public. Although leaflet advertising
promotion is quite old fashioned in this digital age, yet the effective promotion should be the
promotion of both modern and traditional techniques. One of the advantages of using leaflets in
promoting health promotion is that it is cost effective. In general the health promotion activities
involves a huge amount of cost, hence it can be convenient for the health care practitioners or the
stakeholders of the campaign to save the cost of advertising. The beauty of using leaflets in the
health promotion activity regarding the contraction of hepatitis C is that one can deliver the
message right in the hand of the public2. Health promotion is possible also by using the social
networking site. But using leaflets, one can ensure that the communication is actually occurring
5 A.Colledge, J. Car, A. Donnelly, and A. Majeed, 2008. Health information for patients: time to look beyond
patient information leaflets. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 101(9), 447–453.
http://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.2008.080149
6 A.Colledge, J. Car, A. Donnelly, and A. Majeed, 2008. Health information for patients: time to look beyond
patient information leaflets. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 101(9), 447–453.
http://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.2008.080149

4HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
one to one. Every section of the population might not find it convenient to use online sources.
Hence leaflets are suitable for reaching every section of people 7. Good medical leaflets should
have some checklists, while starting with a health promotion activity. First is the target group,
the cover design should clearly indicate about who is the leaflet aimed at. The websites and the
contact details should remain up to date, otherwise it will not be of any use to the vulnerable
group. Secondly it is necessary to have a look at the tone of the voice12. Is it scaremongering or
patronizing? Unsuitable tone can put the reader off and will prevent the actual message to get
across the public. It has to be clear that the messages are not influenced by any commercial
interests. One has to be sure about the headings, as general public first scan the headings before
moving to the actual content. The readability score should be appropriate and finally the leaflet
should have a succinct summary with a proper take home message12.
The aim of the leaflets is to target the high risk group of contracting hepatitis C. Chronic
Hepatitis is the major cause of liver cirrhosis with a prevalence of 3 % worldwide2. It has been
found that the prevalence of hepatitis C in UK is mainly centered on those areas having a large
number of immigrant populations8. The chronic liver diseases have been found to be an added
burden to the health care cost of the NHS. The hepatitis C action plan targets the group of the
ethnic minorities where the HCV is endemic9.
7 M.Garner, Z.Ning,. and J. Francis, 2012. A framework for the evaluation of patient information leaflets. Health
Expectations, 15(3), pp.283-294.
8 N.B .Johnson, L.D. Hayes, K. Brown, E.C Hoo, and K.A.Ethier, 2014. CDC National Health Report: leading
causes of morbidity and mortality and associated behavioral risk and protective factors—United States, 2005–2013.

5HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
Globally about 71 million people have been suffering from hepatitis C and approximately
39000 people die each year due to hepatitis C 10. It is a blood borne infection and can transmit
through the exposure to small quantities of blood. One of the factors of concern is that currently
there are no vaccines for hepatitis. The monitoring and the diagnoses of HCV provided in the
leaflet are quite simple. More detailed information could have been given such as the patient will
be asked to have a blood test and if the GP suggests something wrong then the patient might
need a liver biopsy2. Different imaging tests such as MRI, CT scan, and ultrasound can be made
to detect the condition of the liver.
While referring to the control measures, the paper had advised to drink within the safe
limits like two units and three units in men. It should be kept in mind that hepatitis and alcohol is
a dangerous cocktail and Alcohol intake of more than 50 grams in a day may lead to increased
risk of liver cirrhosis and fibrosis11. The leaflet has been stating the fact that although there are
no vaccinations for hepatitis C, but vaccinations for A & B is necessary 12. Persons, already
9 T.Abel, K. Hofmann, S.Ackermann, S. Bucher, and S.Sakarya, S., 2014. Health literacy among young adults: a
short survey tool for public health and health promotion research. Health promotion international, 30(3), pp.725-
735.
10 E.GowerEstes, S. Blach, K. Razavi-Shearer, and H. Razavi, 2014. Global epidemiology and genotype distribution
of the hepatitis C virus infection. Journal of hepatology, 61(1), pp.S45-S57.
11 G.T .Carter, V. Duong, S. Ho, K.C. Ngo, C.L. Greer and D.L.Weeks, 2014. Side effects of commonly prescribed
analgesic medications. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics, 25(2), pp.457-470.
12 C.E. McGowan and M.W.Fried, 2012. Barriers to hepatitis C treatment. Liver International, 32(s1), pp.151-156.

6HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
affected by hepatitis A and B, have a higher risk of being infected with the hepatitis C virus. The
leaflet did not even provide a short description of the individuals who are vulnerable to this
disease. People who are not vaccinated for A and B, anybody having a sex partner with hepatitis
C, people sharing needles to inject drugs, persons with end stage renal disease, people living in
facilities for people who are developmentally disabled, travelling to region with high rates of
hepatitis C, people suffering from chronic liver diseases, individuals with HIV infection2.
The leaflet also stated about the risk of taking paracetamol as the pain killer. It should be
noted that the combination of paracetamol and hepatitis C can be life threatening. Overdose of
acetaminophen can be detrimental for a liver as if taken in excess, the drugs starts accumulating I
the liver which causes damage to the liver cells. The highest suggested dose for acetaminophen
can be about 3250 mg per day, which is about 5-6 tablets of 500 mg each day. It is necessary to
be sure about alcohol intake while taking acetaminophen, as both are processed in the liver and
even a healthy person might contract with problem taking them together11.
The information present in the leaflet is quite comprehensible as the language was simple
and can be understandable to an age of 10. Literary sources like leaflets, flyers or brochures
should have an optimum readability of aged 10. The readability of the packaged leaflets
regarding the medical products is generally measured by SMOG grade, Szigriszt’s perspicuity
index or Kincaid grade level 13.
13 S.Štajner, R.Evans, C.Orasan, and R. Mitkov, 2012. What can readability measures really tell us about text
complexity. In Proceedings of workshop on natural language processing for improving textual accessibility (pp. 14-
22).

7HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
The leaflet displayed the readability grade to be a school reading level. Using of simple
words for the description of the pathopysiology has been commendable. One of the criticisms
regarding the leaflet is that it could have provided the symptoms and the ways of contracting the
illness in a detailed form and in bullet points to make it easily detectable 14. Short collages of
figures could have made the pamphlet more attractive to the readers. Another disadvantage of
this leaflet is that the leaflet could have provided more information regarding the organizations to
be approached if contracted with Hepatitis C. One link had been provided but that does not
suffice the requirements. Links of suitable websites containing authentic information regarding
hepatitis C could have been provided.
Sometimes the leaflets cane torn or tossed and overlooked but even a small glance at the
material is worth compared to the message that is not seen at all. The background of the leaflet
should be bright and should be attracting the audience before throwing it12. The writing should be
in contrast to the background, such that it is easily readable, which is quite appreciable in this
case; blue background with dark colored headings and white contents15. The font size of the
leaflet is also appropriate such that they can be read quite comfortably with naked eyes. The
fourfold pattern of the leaflet makes it compact and handy. While discussing about the relevancy
of the content, the content of a leaflet should be short, simple and easily understood16. While
further assessing the leaflet, the layout should be focused on. The leaflet has used chunks of
14 R.Adepu, and M.K. Swamy, 2012. Development and evaluation of patient information leaflets (PIL)
usefulness. Indian journal of pharmaceutical sciences, 74(2), p.174.
15 M.Garner, Z. Ning and J. Francis, 2012. A framework for the evaluation of patient information leaflets. Health
Expectations, 15(3), pp.283-294.

8HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
paragraphs with appropriate headings 12. The concerned leaflet is soothing blue in color, but does
not contain any images. Images can be helpful for the people with lower literary skills and the
bright colors also aids to draw the attention of persons. It should be kept in mind that it is the
images that actually makes a leaflet catchy to the audiences. The colorful effect can be given by
using the photographic collages related to high risk behavior or disease prevention such as
needles, condoms and more. The digital image of the virus responsible for the disease can also be
given.
The main thing that can be kept in mind is that a health promotion leaflet should be
patient centered, such as a small epidemiology of the disease, the signs and the symptoms, the
probable strategies for contracting the disease12. The diagnoses should be mentioned in detail in
the leaflet as detecting is the first stage. A person might tally his symptoms with the symptoms
mentioned in the leaflets. The leaflet may contain few pharmacological interventions regarding
the disease. Leaflets contains information in precise form hence any contraindications regarding
the medications cannot be provided.
It can be said that the information provided in the leaflet is quite relevant with
appropriate information, except few elaborations were required in some of the areas. The layout
of the leaflet is attractive, although few images could have made it even better. The reading level
of the leaflet is also suitable to address general public. The knowledge of the readability tests,
16 S.Štajner, R.Evans, C.Orasan, and R. Mitkov, 2012. What can readability measures really tell us about text
complexity. In Proceedings of workshop on natural language processing for improving textual accessibility (pp. 14-
22).

9HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
simple use of pictorial representations can make the health care professionals to choose the
appropriate method of health promotion.

10HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
References
Abel, T., Hofmann, K., Ackermann, S., Bucher, S. and Sakarya, S., 2014. Health literacy among
young adults: a short survey tool for public health and health promotion research. Health
promotion international, 30(3), pp.725-735.
Adepu, R. and Swamy, M.K., 2012. Development and evaluation of patient information leaflets
(PIL) usefulness. Indian journal of pharmaceutical sciences, 74(2), p.174.
Carter, G.T., Duong, V., Ho, S., Ngo, K.C., Greer, C.L. and Weeks, D.L., 2014. Side effects of
commonly prescribed analgesic medications. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Clinics, 25(2), pp.457-470.
Colledge, A., Car, J., Donnelly, A., and Majeed, A. ,2008. Health information for patients: time
to look beyond patient information leaflets. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 101(9),
447–453. http://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.2008.080149
Corcoran, N. ed., 2013. Communicating health: strategies for health promotion. Sage.
Garner, M., Ning, Z. and Francis, J., 2012. A framework for the evaluation of patient information
leaflets. Health Expectations, 15(3), pp.283-294.

11HEALTH PROMOTION ACTIVITY
Gower, E., Estes, C., Blach, S., Razavi-Shearer, K. and Razavi, H., 2014. Global epidemiology
and genotype distribution of the hepatitis C virus infection. Journal of hepatology, 61(1), pp.S45-
S57.
Johnson, N.B., Hayes, L.D., Brown, K., Hoo, E.C. and Ethier, K.A., 2014. CDC National Health
Report: leading causes of morbidity and mortality and associated behavioral risk and protective
factors—United States, 2005–2013.
Kemppainen, V., Tossavainen, K. and Turunen, H., 2013. Nurses' roles in health promotion
practice: an integrative review. Health Promotion International, 28(4), pp.490-501.
Krenkel, O., Mossanen, J.C. and Tacke, F., 2014. Immune mechanisms in acetaminophen-induced
acute liver failure. Hepatobiliary surgery and nutrition, 3(6), p.331.
Martin, T.C., Martin, N.K., Hickman, M., Vickerman, P., Page, E.E., Everett, R., Gazzard, B.G.
and Nelson, M., 2013. Hepatitis C virus reinfection incidence and treatment outcome among
HIV-positive MSM. Aids, 27(16), pp.2551-2557.
McGowan, C.E. and Fried, M.W., 2012. Barriers to hepatitis C treatment. Liver
International, 32(s1), pp.151-156.
Protheroe, J., Estacio, E.V. and Saidy-Khan, S., 2015. Patient information materials in general
practices and promotion of health literacy: an observational study of their effectiveness. Br J Gen
Pract, 65(632), pp.e192-e197.