Publications by authors named "Olivia Mac"
Human rabies is preventable but almost always fatal once symptoms appear, causing 59,000 global deaths each year. Limited awareness and inconsistent access to post-exposure prophylaxis hinder prevention efforts. To identify gaps and opportunities for improvement in online rabies information, we assessed the readability, understandability, actionability, and completeness of online public rabies resources from government and health agencies in Australia and similar countries, with the aim of identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Despite increasing attention on health literacy and the inclusion of grade reading level recommendations in guidelines, it remains unclear if lowering the grade reading level of written health information to specific target grades improves patient-related outcomes.
Objective: To assess whether grade reading level of written information affects knowledge, perceived reading ease, acceptability and trustworthiness of information and, to explore whether information written at a lower grade reading level reduces disparities in outcomes across health literacy levels.
Design: We conducted a 4-arm online randomized trial with a community sample of adults living in Australia from 31 July to 20 September 2023.
Importance: Complex and ineffective health communication is a critical source of health inequity and occurs despite repeated policy directives to provide health information that is easy to understand and applies health literacy principles.
Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the Sydney Health Literacy Lab Health Literacy Editor, an easy-to-use online plain language tool that supports health information providers to apply health literacy guidelines to written health information.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This randomized clinical trial, conducted online in Australia from May 2023 to February 2024, included a convenience sample of health information providers with no previous experience using the Health Literacy Editor.
Introduction: Few studies have examined the use of ibutilide in noncardiac surgical populations. Our study considered the effectiveness and safety of ibutilide in cardioversion of atrial fibrillation (AF) in medical and surgical intensive care patients.
Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed for patients with a confirmed diagnosis of AF who were hemodynamically stable and received ibutilide after the initial diagnosis.
Background: Most health information does not meet the health literacy needs of our communities. Writing health information in plain language is time-consuming but the release of tools like ChatGPT may make it easier to produce reliable plain language health information.
Objective: To investigate the capacity for ChatGPT to produce plain language versions of health texts.
Objective: The Sydney Health Literacy Lab (SHeLL) Editor is an online text-editing tool that provides real-time assessment and feedback on written health information (assesses grade reading score, complex language, passive voice). This study aimed to explore how the design could be further enhanced to help health information providers interpret and act on automated feedback.
Methods: The prototype was iteratively refined across four rounds of user-testing with health services staff ( = 20).
Objective: The current study examined patterns in COVID-19 testing and vaccination intentions across multiple language groups in Greater Western Sydney, Australia.
Methods: Participants completed a cross-sectional survey available from March 21 to July 9, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. Surveys were available in English or translated (11 languages).
Background: To investigate whether culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Western Sydney have experienced any positive effects during the COVID-19 pandemic, and if so, what these were.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey with ten language groups was conducted from 21st March to 9th July 2021 in Sydney, Australia. Participants were recruited through bilingual multicultural health staff and health care interpreter service staff and answered a question, 'In your life, have you experienced any positive effects from the COVID-19 pandemic?' Differences were explored by demographic variables.
Purpose The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of bladder pressures in the diagnosis and management of abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS). Methods After Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, nine operative abdominal trauma patients were prospectively studied over an 18-month period. Bladder pressures were compared to pressures obtained from intra-operatively placed electronic transducer located in the pelvis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To explore the psychological, social and financial outcomes of COVID-19-and the sociodemographic predictors of those outcomes-among culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Sydney, Australia.
Design: Cross-sectional survey informed by the Framework for Culturally Competent Health Research conducted between March and July 2021.
Setting: Participants who primarily speak a language other than English at home were recruited from Greater Western Sydney, New South Wales.
Introduction: Question prompt lists (QPLs) have been found to support patients to ask questions and improve the information they receive from doctors. However, some QPL tools, which have been available online for almost 15 years, have little published data on their impact in real-world settings. This study's aim was to understand patients' attitudes and experiences accessing health information and to assess the impact of introducing two generic QPLs over 3 months.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The effectiveness of patient decision aids (PtDAs) and other shared decision-making (SDM) interventions for socially disadvantaged populations has not been well studied.
Purpose: To assess whether PtDAs and other SDM interventions improve outcomes or decrease health inequalities among socially disadvantaged populations and determine the critical features of successful interventions.
Data Sources: MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane, PsycINFO, and Web of Science from inception to October 2019.
Background: There is increasing recognition of the importance of addressing health literacy in patient decision aid (PtDA) development.
Purpose: An updated review as part of IPDAS 2.0 examined the extent to which PtDAs are designed to meet the needs of people with low health literacy/socially-disadvantaged populations.
Background: Since December 2017, the Australian National Cervical Screening Program no longer recommends screening for women under 25 years of age.
Aim: To explore the attitudes of women under 25 years toward the changes.
Methods: In December 2019, women aged 18-24, residing in Australia, were recruited via the social media platform Instagram and Facebook.
Objective: To investigate framing of active surveillance as a management option for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN)2 in women of childbearing age.
Methods: We conducted a between-subjects factorial (2 × 2) randomised experiment. Women aged 25-40 living in Australia were presented with the same hypothetical pathway of testing human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive, high-grade cytology and a diagnosis of CIN2, through an online survey.
Objective: To explore women's experiences of the renewed National Cervical Screening Program in Australia from the perspective of women who have received different human papillomavirus (HPV) test results. Women aged 25 to 74 are now screened every 5 years with primary HPV screening.
Design: Qualitative interview study.
Background: Three main changes were implemented in the Australian National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) in December 2017: an increase in the recommended age to start screening, extended screening intervals, and change from the Papanicolaou (Pap) test to primary human papillomavirus screening (cervical screening test). The internet is a readily accessible source of information to explain the reasons for these changes to the public. It is important that web-based health information about changes to national screening programs is accessible and understandable for the general population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: From December 2017, the Australian National Cervical Screening Program commenced 5 yearly primary human papillomavirus (HPV) screening; one of the first high-income countries to implement primary HPV screening. This study aimed to examine the psychosocial impact of self-reporting testing HPV positive in a sample of women screened since the renewal of the programme.
Methods: Women in Australia aged 25-74 years who reported participating in cervical screening since December 2017 were recruited through an online market research company to complete a cross-sectional survey.
Traumatic abdominal wall hernias comprise less than 1% of all abdominal wall hernias. We present a 22-year-old male sustaining a traumatic Spigelian hernia resulting from striking a guardrail while snowboarding. In addition, the patient was found to have injuries to the serosa of the small bowel and mesentery, which were repaired during emergent surgery.
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