The effect of different styles of medical illustration on information comprehension, the perception of educational material and illness beliefs

•Medical illustration embedded in an educational text improved illness understanding.•The addition of an image to the text made the material more visually appealing.•A cartoon conveyed information about treatment better than text without images.•Neither the anatomical image nor CT scan affected information comprehension. To explore how the addition of a medical illustration and its style affected information comprehension, perception of educational material and illness beliefs. 204 people recruited in a supermarket were randomised to read one of the four leaflets about gout and fill out a questionnaire. Three leaflets had a picture showing gout in the form of a cartoon, an anatomical drawing or a computed tomography scan (CT). The control leaflet did not contain images. Seeing an illustrated leaflet helped correctly identify treatment for gout X2(1, N = 204) = 5.51, p=0.019. Out of the three images, only the cartoon was better than text in conveying information about treatment X2(1, n = 102) = 8.84, p=0.018. Participants perceived illustrated leaflets as more visually appealing t(70) = 3.09, p = 0.003, and the anatomical image was seen as more helpful for understanding of the illness than the cartoon. Pictures did not significantly influence lay illness perceptions about gout. Pictures aid the understanding of health information and increase the visual appeal of materials. While simpler illustrations convey information more effectively, people prefer more detailed anatomical images; CT scans offer no benefits over simpler images. The results can help guide the use of images in gout education material.