Poster Presentation 2025 Joint Meeting of the COSA ASM and IPOS Congress

Cancer information for everyone: Expanding equitable access to information with a low literacy pilot series (126368)

Jenni Bruce 1 , Jenny Mothoneos 1 , Vanessa Johnston 1
  1. Cancer Council NSW, Woolloomooloo, NSW, Australia

Background and rationale

Access to reliable consumer cancer information has a range of benefits, including improved health literacy, increased sense of involvement in care, and improved ability to cope across the cancer trajectory.1-4 While a wide range of information resources are available to people affected by cancer, these are largely inaccessible to the 14% of Australians with low literacy (Level 1 or below).5 This Cancer Council NSW project aims to develop and evaluate a model to address this gap in accessible cancer information.

Methods

A multimodal pilot series of 5 Easy Read fact sheets and a 2-minute animated video was developed iteratively by a professional cancer information team under the guidance of an advisory panel, which included health literacy experts; organisations that work with culturally and linguistically diverse communities and people with intellectual disabilities; health professionals; and consumers.

The resources feature bespoke realistic illustrations and simple text and follow established Easy Read principles.6-8 The video outlines how cancer is diagnosed and where to find support, while the fact sheets cover the key topics of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, feelings, money concerns and staying healthy after treatment.

Focus testing of the resources was conducted with the advisory panel and more than 80 consumers, including people with disabilities and support workers, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and people from both metro and regional areas.

The fact sheets and video will be available online at cancercouncil.com.au/easy-read by July 2025, with printed fact sheets distributed through hospitals and treatment centres.  

Discussion

An evaluation will assess the acceptability of this model for different end users, including health professionals, people with lower literacy from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with intellectual disabilities, and other people with lower literacy. Early results will be available by November 2025 for inclusion in the poster presentation.

  1. Slevin, R.P., Hodorowski, J. K., et al. (2010). Patient-centered communication in cancer care: The role of the NCI’s Cancer Information Service, Journal of Cancer Education, 1, pp 36-43
  2. Knobf M, T. (2013). Being prepared: Essential to self-care and quality of life for the person with cancer, Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 17, 255-261. DOI 10.1188/13.CJON.255-261
  3. Husson, O., Mols, F. l.v. Van de Poll-Franse. (2011). The relation between information provision and health related quality of life, anxiety and depression among cancer survivors: a systematic review, Annals of Oncology, 22, DOI 10.1093/annonc/mdq413
  4. Hill SJ, Sofra TA. How could health information be improved? Recommended actions from the Victorian Consultation on Health Literacy. Australian Health Review. 2018;42(2):134-9.
  5. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2011-2012). Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, Australia. ABS. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/programme-international-assessment-adult-competencies-australia/latest-release.
  6. Council for Intellectual Disability (2024). Easy Read Guidelines 2024. Council for Intellectual Disability (CID).
  7. Centre for Inclusive Design (2020). Easy English versus Plain English, Centre for Inclusive Design.
  8. Meltzer, A., Barnes, E., & Wehbe, A. (2025). Easy Read… Easy English… Plain Language? Decision‐Making in the Production of ‘Easy’ Information in Australia. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 38(1), e70021. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.70021