Portrait

Janina Kröger first completed a Bachelor's degree in International Communications and Translation (2013 - 2017), followed by a Master's degree with a focus on media text and media translation (2017 - 2019) at the University of Hildesheim Foundation. During her bachelor's degree, she already placed a personal focus on the area of accessible Communications, in particular easy and simple language. Since May 2019, Ms. Kröger has been working as a translator at the Easy Language Research Center at the University of Hildesheim, translating health information into easy language, among other things. Ms Kröger is a member of the Hildesheim research group "Barrier-free medical communication" (BK-Med) led by Prof. Dr. Christiane Maaß and Dr. Isabel Rink.

Topic

Accessibility of health information. A corpus-based analysis using the example of the project "medical advice texts in plain language"

About the project

The Internet is an important source when searching for health information. However, a large proportion of the population has low health literacy and has difficulties understanding and evaluating health information (Schaeffer et al. 2016). In addition, some target groups are confronted with barriers of various kinds due to written texts (cf. Rink 2020). It is therefore necessary to take a closer look at the information available online in order to identify potential barriers and develop strategies for comprehensible and acceptable texts.

Ms. Kröger's dissertation project focuses on the question of which factors influence the accessibility of health information. The project takes a text-centered approach in the form of a corpus analysis and aims to provide criteria for comprehensible and acceptable health information in plain language.

Method

For the analysis, a corpus is compiled consisting of standard language health information and its translations into plain language. The texts are published online and inform medical laypersons about clinical pictures, prevention and correct health behavior, e.g. the correct intake of medication. The analysis is carried out using a criteria-based qualitative content analysis that structures the content (Kuckartz 2016). The texts are examined with regard to word, sentence and text level as well as their affiliation to a text type, text function and mediality.

The following research questions will guide the study of the corpus:

(1) What are the linguistic and conceptual characteristics of standard language health information texts?

(2) What barriers can occur in standard language health information texts?

(3) How should texts in plain language be designed to convey health information?

Publications

Kröger J, Maaß C (2024). Lack of comprehensibility due to technical language in health information on chronic diseases - a qualitative corpus analysis. Prev Gesundheitsf doi.org/10.1007/s11553-024-01124-0

Kröger J (2023). The presentation of conditions in health information and its influence on comprehensibility. Healthcare 2023; 85(08/09): 800 - 800. doi:10.1055/s-0043-1770566

Ahrens, Sarah; Schulz, Rebecca; Kröger, Janina; Hernández Garrido, Sergio; Keller, Loraine & Rink, Isabel (eds.) (2022): Accessibility - Health Literacy - Health Information: Interdisciplinary Approaches to an Emerging Field of Communication. Berlin: Frank & Timme.

Kröger J (2022, August): Accessibility of health information on the Internet: First findings of a text analysis. Poster presentation at the Summerschool chronische Erkrankungen und interdisziplinäre Gesundheitskompetenzforschung, Hanover, 01.08.2022.

Kröger J (2022, August): Accessibility and evidence-based research -(How) do they fit together? Workshop as part of the summer school on chronic diseases and interdisciplinary health literacy research, Hanover, 01.08.2022.

Kröger J (2020). Communication Barriers and Cultural Participation: A Visit to a Wildlife Park as a Multicodal Accessible Text. In: Hansen-Schirra, Silvia /Maaß, Christiane (eds.): Easy Language Research: Text and User Perspectives. Berlin: Frank & Timme. Easy - Plain - Accessible Vol. 2.

Kröger, Janina & Ahrens, Sarah (2022): "An interdisciplinary approach to translation-oriented text analysis in intralingual translation research: Research report." In: Ahrens, Sarah; Schulz, Rebecca; Kröger, Janina; Hernández Garrido, Sergio; Keller, Loraine & Rink, Isabel (eds.): Accessibility - Health Literacy - Health Information: Interdisciplinary Approaches to an Emerging Field of Communication. Berlin: Frank & Timme, 113-138.

Ahrens, Sarah /Hernández Garrido, Sergio /Keller, Loraine /Kröger, Janina /Rink,Isabel /Schulz, Rebecca (2021): "Medical communication in Easy and Plain Language: On understanding, retaining and accepting specialized medical communication in comprehensibility-enhanced formats." In: Jekat, Susanne J., Steffen Puhl, Luisa Carrer, and Alexa Lintner, eds. 2021. Proceedings of the 3rd Swiss Conference on Barrier-free Communication (BfC 2020). Winterthur (online) , June 2 9 - July 4, 2020. Winterthur: ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, 29 - 37. DOI: 10.21256/zhaw-3001