Using a critical incident technique to develop nutrition information materials for adults with low literacy skills

One problem encountered by many who work with nutrition and health education programs is the lack of curricular and instructional materials appropriate for adults with low literacy skills. In their seminal work, Doak et al. (1) clearly demonstrated the breadth and depth of this problem in patient education. Systematic methods for determining appropriate written materials for adults with low literacy skills are badly needed. A method that holds promise for identifYing and developing instructional materials for adults with low literacy skills is the Critical Incident Technique (CIT). Studies have shown the CIT to be a powerful approach to identifYing specific behaviors associated with effective and ineffective performance (2). This technique has been adopted by various professions as a strategy for developing educational and training programs. Few studies, however, have used the cq for groups with low levels of literacy. In addition, its application to the development of instructional materials remains unexplored. The purposes of this paper are to provide an overview of the CIT and to report on the use of the CIT in the development of nutrition information materials for adults with low literacy skills.