In order to minimize risk of infection and potential foot complications, it is recommended that people with and without diabetes check their feet regularly for problems such as cuts, sores, blisters or calluses. Hence, an understanding of how to craft effective messages to encourage people to check their feet is important. Two studies investigated the use of narrative stories to encourage foot problem detection behaviour; Study 1 in a general population sample (N = 193), and Study 2 in a sample of people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes (N = 129). In both studies participants were randomised to either (a) receive an information sheet written in first-person narrative; (b) the same in non-narrative format; or (c) no information sheet. Changes in weekly detection behaviour was the outcome of interest. In both studies, greater detection behaviour was observed in the narrative message condition vs. non-narrative condition and the non-narrative condition vs. no information condition. Our findings have implications for the design of health messages in delivering effective foot care education to people with and without diabetes, suggesting that narrative information sheets may be more effective than non-narrative information sheets.

为了尽量减少感染和潜在足部并发症的风险，建议糖尿病患者和非糖尿病患者定期检查足部是否存在割伤、溃疡、水泡或老茧等问题。因此，了解如何制作有效的信息以鼓励人们检查自己的脚很重要。两项研究调查了使用叙事故事来鼓励足部问题检测行为；普通人群样本中的研究 1 ( N  = 193)，以及 1 型或 2 型糖尿病患者样本中的研究 2 ( N = 129)。在这两项研究中，参与者被随机分配到（a）接收以第一人称叙述写成的信息表；(b) 非叙述形式的相同；(c) 没有信息表。每周检测行为的变化是感兴趣的结果。在这两项研究中，在叙述性信息条件与非叙述性条件以及非叙述性条件与无信息条件下观察到了更大的检测行为。我们的研究结果对设计健康信息以向糖尿病患者和非糖尿病患者提供有效的足部护理教育具有重要意义，这表明叙述性信息表可能比非叙述性信息表更有效。