Impact of data visualization on decision-making and its implications for public health practice: a systematic literature review

ABSTRACT

Data visualization tools have the potential to support decision-making for public health professionals. This review summarizes the science and evidence regarding data visualization and its impact on decision-making behavior as informed by cognitive processes such as understanding, attitude, or perception.

An electronic literature search was conducted using six databases, including reference list reviews. Search terms were pre-defined based on research questions.

Sixteen studies were included in the final analysis. Data visualization interventions in this review were found to impact attitude, perception, and decision-making compared to controls. These relationships between the interventions and outcomes appear to be explained by mediating factors such as perceived trustworthiness and quality, domain-specific knowledge, basic beliefs shared by social groups, and political beliefs.

Visualization appears to bring advantages by increasing the amount of information delivered and decreasing the cognitive and intellectual burden to interpret information for decision-making. However, understanding data visualization interventions specific to public health leaders’ decision-making is lacking, and there is little guidance for understanding a participant’s characteristics and tasks. The evidence from this review suggests positive effects of data visualization can be identified, depending on the control of confounding factors on attitude, perception, and decision-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Data visualization
• decision-making
• public health practice
• local health department
• public health informatics

Disclosure statement

The authors have no competing interests to declare.

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Funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.