Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information. For patients, health literacy means being able to:
- Follow instructions from a doctor, nurse or pharmacist
- Manage a chronic illness
- Take medication properly
For health care practitioners, health literacy is about helping patients understand and act on health care information. According to the Institute of Medicine Report, Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion, 90 million people have difficulty understanding and using health information. Studies also show people from all ages, races, income and education levels are challenged by this problem. Programs to promote health literacy should be sensitive to cultural and language preferences.
Sources
Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion (2004)
Related Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Tools
AMA: Health Literacy
Web site
Contains tools to raise awareness of health literacy through toolkits, videos, and partnerships.
Ask Me 3
Web site
Provides information about health literacy for health care providers, patients, employers, and the media. Includes brochures in English and Spanish, lists questions to ask a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist, and offers tips to help better understand personal health.
CDC Health Literacy: Accurate, Accessible and Actionable Health Information for All
Web site
Provides information and tools to improve health literacy and public health.
CDC-INFO
Web site
Single source for accurate, timely, consistent, and science-based information on a variety of disease prevention and health promotion topics. Representatives are available to answer questions in English and Spanish.
Clear Health Communication
Web site
Includes information and resources including what is health literacy, statistics, myths and reality, and signs of low health literacy.
Clinician-Consumer Health Advisory Information Network (CHAIN)
Web site
Provides information to health-care professionals, patients, family members, medical faculty, and others about emerging issues concerning the safe and effective use of drugs, devices, and biological products.
Cultural Competency and Health Literacy Resources for Health Care Providers
Web site
Highlights projects on cross-cultural health care. Helps health care providers enhance their clinical and organizational skills in cultural competence
Effective Health Care Program
Web site
Provides health care reports from quality research in formats for consumers, clinicians, and policymakers. Information available in Spanish.
Harvard School of Public Health: Health Literacy Studies
Web site
Serves as the research program of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy, whose work is based in public health, health care settings, and adult education programs. Site is designed for professionals in health and education.
Health Information in Multiple Languages
Web site
Provides access to consumer health information in languages other than English.
Health Literacy and Cultural Competency: Research Findings
Web site
Lists links to research activities of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) that are related to health literacy and cultural competency.
Health Literacy Improvement
Web site
Provides links to tools, government resources, plus reports and research to aid in improving health literacy.
Health Literacy Measurement Tools
Web site
Two tools in English and Spanish to measure an aspect of health literacy: an individuals' reading comprehension in a medical context. These tools can be used for research, clinical, or program planning purposes.
Health Literacy Special Collection: Tools and Resources for Health Literacy Initiatives
Web site
Contains health curricula for literacy classes, resources that provide basic health information in simple terms, resources in languages other than English, information about the link between literacy & health status, and links to organizations dedicated to health and literacy education.
Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit
Web site
Offers primary care practices a way to assess their services for health literacy considerations, raise awareness of the entire staff, and work on specific areas.
Health Literacy: Get Training
Web site
Web-based training to educate public health professionals on the importance of health literacy and their role in providing health information and services and promoting public health literacy.
Healthy Roads Media
Web site
Source of health information on several topics in many languages and multiple formats.
HRET Disparities Toolkit
Web site
Provides hospitals, health systems, clinics, and health plans information and resources for systematically collecting race, ethnicity, and primary language data from patients.
HRSA Health Literacy
Web site
Overviews health literacy issues and provides access to additional health literacy resources. Includes access to "Unified Health Communication" course, which can be taken for credit (CEU/CE, CHES, CME, CNE) or not for credit and addresses health literacy, cultural competency and patient communication skills.
Is Our Pharmacy Meeting Patients' Needs?: Pharmacy Health Literacy Assessment Tool User's Guide
Web site
Provides tools to conduct a pharmacy health literacy assessment. Tools could be adapted for a rural pharmacy.
MLANET Health Information Literacy
Web site
Offers a collection of resources and documents on health literacy for health and information professionals and for health consumers.
Newest Vital Sign: A New Health Literacy Assessment Tool for Health Care Providers
Web site
Is a bilingual (English and Spanish) screening tool that helps to identify patients at risk for low health literacy.
NIH Senior Health: Helping Older Adults Search for Health Information Online
Web site
Serves as a toolkit for trainers that help older adults find reliable, up-to-date, online health information on their own. Designed for beginner or intermediate students. Kit includes an introductory video, lesson plans, and other training tools.
NN/LM: Health Literacy
Web site
Provides information on health literacy including: definitions, skills needed for health literacy, background information, the role of the consumer health librarian, and health literacy programs.
Resources on Health Literacy
Web site
Contains links to health literacy resources and recommended sites.
Rhode Island Health Literacy Project
Web site
Provides health literacy resources including a Health Literacy Provider Toolkit. Includes information for patients, cultural competency resources, and physician resources.
Su Familia: The National Hispanic Family Health Helpline
Hotline/Toll Free Telephone
Provides Hispanic consumers free, reliable, and confidential health information in Spanish and English and helps navigate callers through the health system. Nationwide resources and local referral services are provided depending on the need of the caller. Call 1-866-783-2645.
Understanding Health Literacy and its Barriers
Web site
Bibliography of resources about health literacy compiled by the National Library of Medicine.
Virginia Adult Education Health Literacy Toolkit
Web site
Designed to help instructors and administrators better understand the problem of health literacy as it affects their adult learners. Provides resources to aid in curriculum and lesson plan development for use in adult health literacy education.
Regulations, Forms & Other Useful Documents
Accessible Health Information Technology for Populations with Limited Literacy: A Guide for Developers and Purchasers of Health IT
Author(s): June Eichner, Prashila Dullabh
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Designed to provide developers and purchasers of health information technology with structure, strategies, and other resources.
Date: 10 / 2007
America’s Health Literacy: Why We Need Accessible Health Information
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Uses bulleted text, charts, and graphs to summarize key findings from and presents policy implications of the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL).
Date: 2008
Assessing the Nation's Health Literacy: Key Concepts and Findings of the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL)
Author(s): Sheida White
Sponsoring organization: American Medical Association
Describes the outcomes of the federal study, NAAL, and how its implications affect the health care of patients with limited health literacy.
Date: 2008
Depression Literacy: Rates and Relation to Perceived Need and Mental Health Service Utilization in a Rural American Sample
Author(s): Tisha Deen, Ana Bridges
Reports on a study that evaluated the depression literacy of a rural American sample, and examined the relationship of depression literacy with perceived need for and utilization of different types of services for those with emotional problems.
Journal citation: Rural and Remote Health Volume 11 Issue 1803
Date: 11 / 2011
E-patients With a Disability or Chronic Disease
Author(s): Susannah Fox
Sponsoring organization: Pew Internet and American Life Project
Discusses how adults living with a disability or chronic disease are less likely than others to look for health information online, but once online, they are avid health consumers.
Date: 10 / 2007
Family Health and Literacy
Author(s): Julie McKinney, Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi
Sponsoring organization: Literacy Information and Communication System
Includes health materials and websites with examples of how to integrate health and literacy education, how to get started and engage adult learners, and how to build connections between literacy programs and local health services.
Date: 2006
Generations 2010
Author(s): Kathryn Zickuhr
Sponsoring organization: Pew Internet and American Life Project
Presents data on the demographic breakdown of Internet users and what they do online, such as look for health information.
Date: 12 / 2010
Health Literacy and Patient Safety: Help Patients Understand
Author(s): Barry D. Weiss
Sponsoring organization: American Medical Association
Discusses the problem of limited health literacy and its consequences for the healthcare system. Provides practical tips for clinicians to use in making their office practices more "user-friendly" to patients with limited health literacy, and gives suggestions for improving interpersonal communication between clinicians and patients.
Date: 06 / 2006
Health Literacy Fact Sheets
Sponsoring organization: Center for Health Care Strategies
Created for those designing patient education materials for consumers with low health literacy skills. The sheets define health literacy, describe its impact on health outcomes, provide strategies to prepare appropriate educational materials to assist low-literate consumers, plus resources for additional health literacy information and publications.
Health Literacy in a Rural Clinic
Author(s): Felecia G. Wood
Sponsoring organization: Rural Nurse Organization
Describes findings of a study assessing the health literacy of people seeking care in a rural health clinic in the southeastern United States.
Journal citation: Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care Volume 5 Issue 1
Date: 2005
Health Literacy Online: A Guide to Writing and Designing Easy-to-Use Health Web Sites
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Offers a research-based how-to guide for creating health Web sites and Web content for the millions of Americans with limited literacy skills and limited experience using the Web. The strategies in this guide complement accepted principles of good Web design and thus have the potential to improve the online experience for all users, regardless of literacy skills.
Date: 2010
Health Literacy Practices in Primary Care Settings: Examples from the Field
Author(s): Sharon E. Barrett, Jennifer Sheen Puryear, Kathie Westpheling
Sponsoring organization: Commonwealth Fund
Reports on the findings from a 2005 study in which the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved administered an online survey of health care facilities across the country, then followed up with visits to five selected sites, including rural, for staff and patient interviews.
Date: 01 / 2008
Health Literacy Style Manual
Sponsoring organization: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Designed to aid in developing and improving applications, notices, and other print materials related to government programs. Includes examples from real programs and can be used to make materials more client-centered, thus increasing consumers' capacity to find and understand health information and services and to make informed health-related decisions.
Date: 10 / 2005
Health Literacy: Program Brief
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Lists and describes research supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to improve health literacy as it pertains to prevention, healthy living, chronic disease management, patient-centered health care, cultural competence, and health disparities.
Date: 09 / 2007
Health Topics Searched Online
Author(s): Susannah Fox
Sponsoring organization: Pew Internet and American Life Project
Presents data regarding the type of health information that consumers seek via the Internet. Includes demographics of Internet users by rural, suburban, and urban communities.
Date: 02 / 2011
Innovations in Health Literacy: Workshop Summary
Sponsoring organization: Institute of Medicine
Highlights the IOM Roundtable on Health Literacy meeting held on May 27, 2010 that explored areas of health literacy, health disparities, and ways to apply information technology to improve health literacy. Chapters 3 and 7 mention rural.
Date: 03 / 2011
MedlinePlus and the Challenge of Low Health Literacy: Findings From the Colonias Project
Author(s): Cynthia A. Olney, Debra G. Warner, Greysi Reyna, Fred B. Wood, Elliot R. Siegel
Sponsoring organization: Medical Library Association
Discusses the Colonias Project, an 18-month outreach project with the goal of increasing the usage of MedlinePlus and MedlinePlus en español and overcoming associated problems with health literacy in low-income, medically underserved Hispanic communities (colonias) along the Texas-Mexico border, where residents primarily speak Spanish.
Journal citation: Journal of the Medical Library Association Volume 95 Issue 1 Pages: 31-39
Date: 01 / 2007
National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy (Summary)
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Seeks to engage organizations, professionals, policymakers, communities, individuals, and families in a linked, multisector effort to improve health literacy.
Date: 05 / 2010
Quick Guide to Health Literacy
Sponsoring organization: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Created in 2007, it is designed as a quick reference for government employees, grantees and contractors, and community partners working in healthcare and public health fields.
Social Life of Health Information
Author(s): Susannah Fox
Sponsoring organization: Pew Internet and American Life Project
Presents data on how adults in rural and urban areas now use the Internet (social networks, blogs, podcasts, and forums) for health information.
Date: 06 / 2009
Using Technology to Deliver Healthcare Education to Rural Patients
Author(s): McIlhenny CV, Guzic BL, Knee DR, Wendekier CM, Demuth BR, Roberts JB
Describes how the Internet can help rural health facilities get access to current health education materials for their patients.
Journal citation: Rural and Remote Health Volume 11 Pages: 1798
Date: 10 / 2011
What Did the Doctor Say?: Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety
Sponsoring organization: Joint Commission
Discusses how cultural, language, and communication barriers can lead to misunderstandings between patients and their health care providers and can place patients at a greater risk of preventable adverse events.
Date: 2007
Organizations
CancerCare
National organization
Offers support for healthcare professionals in the form of educational materials for patients, distance learning programs, and professional consultation. Also, provides support services to anyone affected by cancer.
Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS)
Nonprofit/Foundation
Works to promote high quality health care services for low-income populations and people with chronic illnesses and disabilities.
Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS)
National organization
A national dissemination, resource gathering, and professional development system providing information on a wide variety of literacy relevant topics, issues, and resources.
Terms & Acronyms
Cultural Competency A competency based on the premise of respect for individuals and cultural differences, and an implementation of a trust-promoting method of inquiry.
Health Literacy The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.
Language Access Services (LAS) Services designed to ensure effective communication between limited English proficient individuals and English speakers. May include oral interpretation and written translation services and other provisions that enhance communication such as signage and symbols.
Limited literacy The inability to read or write above a 7th grade reading level, which would make it difficult to perform daily, necessary tasks.
|
