Health Literacy
The mind and body are pretty complicated, more complicated than anything in the universe, but there is lots you can learn and need to know.
When making decisions about your health, be the CEO of your own body. Surround yourself with competent department heads - family, friends, and health care workers - and do your research, but be in control!
Education is not enough.
Onse size does not fit all. However, government's don't pay for specific plans.
Community health literacy is the knowledge and capability residing outside of the group people who make health care their vocation.
Health care professionals have an important role to play in providing the right information, the right way, at the right time.
Health Literacy Resources and References
Atlantic Health Knowledge Partnership
Nova Scotia Department of Health Intiative on Health Literacy
Empirical studies assessing the quality of health information for consumers on the world wide web: a systematic review. Eysenbach et al, JAMA, 2002
Unraveling the web: an evaluation of the content quality, usability, and readability of nutrition web sites. Sutherland et al, Journal of Nutrition Education Behavior, 2005
PatientInform.org: an American umbrella organization connecting patients and caregivers with the latest research.
- Health describes topics such as nutrition, exercise, and stress.
- Diseases and Conditions initially covers common conditions such as cancer, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes.
- Human biology introduces the various levels of organization that make up our bodies.
Health Literacy for People involved with Health Care
- the need
- methods of increasing health literacy
- sources of health literacy materials
- clinical tools for addressing health literacy
The Need
- pt-centred medicine
- health literacy and adherence
Methods for Increasing Health Literacy
- difference between patient-accessed and clincially-directed resources
- often people won't understand/know where to go
- sending people to web sites and having them search, or giving specific information
- learning styles
- plain language
- inderprofessional
Sources
- redundancy is a bad thing
- geographical variation
- list 5-6 good sources
- sites of information
Clincial Tools for Addressing Health Literacy
- approaches to the use of clinical tools
- paper vs electronic
- printable
- clinical tools - do in clinic?
- organizational approaches are very important
- make it accessible to various HCPs
pick one disease and build example