HLTH 4380 Week 4 Fact Sheet Draft Example Example

A One-Page Fact Sheet for the Adult Child at a Parent's Medicine Cabinet: A Sentence Headline, Three Questions She Would Ask and a Cover Note Scoring the Draft Against the CDC Clear Communication Index

Student Name

Walden University

HLTH 4380: Strategies for Health Communication and Wellness

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

A One-Page Fact Sheet for the Adult Child at a Parent's Medicine Cabinet: A Sentence Headline, Three Questions She Would Ask and a Cover Note Scoring the Draft Against the CDC Clear Communication Index

The Fact Sheet

Your parent is moving. This week, bring the medicines they no longer use to a drop box.

Packing up a parent's home is a good time to clear out old pills safely. Here is what to do.

What can go?

Old prescriptions and over-the-counter medicines, including pain pills and sleep aids. Leave them in their bottles or pour them into one sealed bag. Black out your parent's name on each label first. Check with the pharmacist before bringing liquids, inhalers or needles.

Where does it go?

Most pharmacies with a drop box keep it near the counter. Some police stations have one too.

Find yours: open the map app on your phone and search "drug disposal near me."

What if there is no drop box nearby?

For most medicines, you can use the trash. Do not crush the pills. Stir them into used coffee grounds or cat litter, seal that in a plastic bag and put it in the household trash. A few strong pain medicines should be flushed instead if no drop box is near; the FDA keeps a short list of them, called the flush list.

Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Disposal of Unused Medicines: What You Should Know.

Cover Note

The Reader and the Page

This sheet is written for Teresa, the composite adult child named in Week 1, who is packing her father's house before his move to assisted living. It is one side of one page because it will travel in a move-in folder and may be stuck to a refrigerator. Every element answers a question she would bring to the cabinet, in the order she would ask it.

Decisions and Their Reasons

The headline is a full sentence stating the action, not a topic label such as "Medicine Disposal," because the CDC Clear Communication Index asks whether the main message is stated at the top and whether the material tells the audience what to do (Baur & Prue, 2014). The three headings are phrased as questions so a reader scanning the page finds her own question.

The lookup box gives a search phrase rather than a printed list of local sites. A printed list would date quickly, while the FDA itself points readers to a map search for "drug disposal near me" (U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA], 2024a).

The trash method now includes "Do not crush the pills," a step the FDA's instructions include (FDA, 2024b) and the county page revised in Week 3 had left out.

One item was cut to save space: a full list of what drop boxes refuse. The sheet keeps a single line telling the reader to check with the pharmacist about liquids, inhalers and needles. This cut should be tested with readers, because it saves space at the cost of a possible wasted trip.

The Draft Against the Index

The Index asks four introductory questions about the primary audience and the action wanted, then scores a set of items on clarity (Baur & Prue, 2014). The draft was checked against them in turn.

The main message is stated once, at the top, in a sentence. The action is explicit and appears in the headline and again in each section. The words are the ones the reader uses: "drop box," "pain pills," "black out," not "authorized collection receptacle" or "controlled substance." The only number on the page is in the search phrase, so no statistics need explaining. The material says why to act now, the move, but not why disposal matters for safety, and the Index asks whether a material explains the reason behind a recommendation. A short sentence could be added, but space is tight.

Two items are uncertain. The Index asks whether the material uses a visual that supports the main message; this draft is text only, and a simple drawing of pill bottles going into a drop box would help. A drawing tied tightly to the words tends to raise attention and recall, and readers with limited literacy gain the most (Houts et al., 2006). The Index also asks about the reader's familiarity with key terms, and "flush list" is the one term on the page a reader may not know; it is explained in the same sentence.

What Comes Next

The draft should be tried with a small group of adult children before printing, with three questions in mind: whether the headline tells them what to do, whether they would find a drop box from the search phrase and whether they miss the list of refused items.

References

Baur, C., & Prue, C. (2014). The CDC Clear Communication Index is a new evidence-based tool to prepare and review health information. Health Promotion Practice, 15(5), 629-637. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839914538969

Houts, P. S., Doak, C. C., Doak, L. G., & Loscalzo, M. J. (2006). The role of pictures in improving health communication: A review of research on attention, comprehension, recall, and adherence. Patient Education and Counseling, 61(2), 173-190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2005.05.004

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2024a). Drug disposal: Drug take-back options. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/disposal-unused-medicines-what-you-should-know/drug-disposal-drug-take-back-locations

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2024b). Drug disposal: Dispose "non-flush list" medicine in trash. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/disposal-unused-medicines-what-you-should-know/drug-disposal-dispose-non-flush-list-medicine-trash