Health literacy & health

outcomes intersections between

health and information

professionals

Alexis

Kopkowski

Outline

What is health literacy?

What are health disparities?

Opportunities for information

professionals to improve health

literacy and health disparities

Future directions and research

What is health literacy?

Poor health literacy is "a stronger predictor of a person's

health than age, income, employment status, education level,

and race”.

Source: American Medical Association

(AMA)

What does the research say?

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) measures the health literacy of adults living in the United States. Health literacy was reported using four performance levels: Below Basic, Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient. According to the NAAL:

14% of adults in the U.S. have Below Basic health literacy

Only 12% of the population has a proficient health literacy level

Individuals with limited health literacy reported poorer health status and were less likely to use preventative care (Nielson-Bohlman, Panzer, and Kindig, 2004)

The annual cost of low health literacy to the U.S. economy ranges from $106 billion to $238 billion (Vernon, et al., 2007)

SOURCE: Medical Expenditure Panel

Survey (MEPS)

Communication with health care

providers—understandingadults 2007 and 2010

Health Disparities

Health disparities refer to differences

between groups of people. These

differences can affect how frequently a

disease affects a group, how many

people get sick, or how often the

disease causes death.

Source: PubMed

Health Disparities, what the

numbers say

Infants born to African American women are 1.5 to 3 times more likely to die than those born to women of other races/ethnicities.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death for most racial and ethnic minorities. African American men are more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer than Caucasian men.

African Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives are twice as likely to have diabetes as Caucasian individuals.

Intersections

From the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy, Goal 1: “Provide everyonewith access to accurate and actionable health information.”

Sound familiar? From the American Library Association, Equity of Access: “…. all people have the information they need-regardless of age, education, ethnicity, language, income, physical limitations or geographic barriers.”

Who is responsible for improving

health literacy?The primary responsibility for improving health

literacy lies with public health professionals and the

healthcare and public health systems. We must

work together to ensure that health information and

services can be understood and used by all

Americans.

How can librarians help? Adult educators can be

productive partners in reaching adults with limited

literacy skills.

Future Directions & Research

Few rigorous evaluations of health literacy-related interventions have been carried out. The evaluations that

have been done are not definitive.

Simplifying reading material by using clear language, pictures and symbols is the most widespread initiative reported in the literature to influence literacy levels, yet

there is little evidence that this improves health outcomes.

Multimedia presentations may improve knowledge of people with both low and high literacy skills, but these do

not appear to change health-related behaviors;

Community-based and participatory approaches seem to show some promise. For example participatory education principles and theories of empowerment appear to help parents access, understand and use health information for the benefit of their own and their children’s health.

Source: World Health Organization

Current initiatives & incentives to

improve health literacyWorld Health Organization (WHO)

Centers for Disease Control &

Prevention (CDC)

Healthy People 2020

QUESTIONS?

Thank you!