Low literacy, poor health and early death are strongly linked in this country and around the world. With approximately 50% of the American public reading at or below the 8th grade level, and the population becoming evermore diverse linguistically and culturally, communicating healthcare and health system information effectively have become complex public health issues. Most health information in print and on the web is written at 10th grade reading level and much higher. The growing complexity of medicine and health care as well as the changing demographics of the country has resulted in poor health literacy among many vulnerable populations including undereducated, low income, ethnic minorities and the elderly. The consequences of low health literacy include inadequate skills to understand and use health care, poor health outcomes, lack of social empowerment and self-efficacy and increased financial costs to the health care system. The Healthy People 2010 guidelines contain an initiative that acknowledges the importance of addressing low health literacy to eliminate health disparities. We propose to research and write a manuscript that examines the critical role literacy plays in public health. The goal of the manuscript will be to make a compelling argument for health literacy as a major public health issue and to demonstrate solutions. We will place the discussion of health literacy in an historical context and present relevant communication models in order to analyze case examples of health communications and then construct easy to understand best practice guidelines for writing and designing linguistically and culturally appropriate health information. The mediums we will predominantly focus on are print communications and the World Wide Web. The target population for this manuscript will be health professionals including public health officials, health communicators and health educators as well as writers and designers working with them.
| Zarcadoolas, Christina; Pleasant, Andrew; Greer, David S (2005) Understanding health literacy: an expanded model. Health Promot Int 20:195-203 |
