OBJECTIVES Health literacy-the ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information-is a major determinant of an individual's overall health and health care utilization. In this project, the authors examined predictors of health literacy levels, including numeracy and graphic literacy, among an adult population in the Upper Midwest. METHODS The research was conducted at the Min...

INTRODUCTION We carried out a qualitative evaluation of immediate learning and attitudinal change among health care and social services professionals who attended a workshop promoting critical reflection about health literacy among linguistic-minority Franco-Ontarians. METHODS The study involved 41 francophone health care and social services professionals. The workshop facilitator used evocat...

OBJECTIVES: To review the relationship between parent and child literacy and child health outcomes and interventions designed to improve child health outcomes for children or parents with low literacy skills. METHODS: We searched Medline and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) for articles published from 1980 through 2008 and included studies that reported orig...

BACKGROUND Low health literacy is generally associated with poor health outcomes; however, health literacy has received little attention in multiple sclerosis (MS). OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the health literacy of persons with MS using the North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis (NARCOMS) Registry. METHODS In 2012, we conducted a cross-sectional stud...

The aim of this study was to assess health literacy (word recognition and comprehension) in patients at a rural rheumatology practice and to compare this to health literacy levels in patients from an urban rheumatology practice. Inclusion criteria for this cross-sectional study were as follows: 18-year-old patients at a rural rheumatology practice (Mid-North Coast Arthritis Clinic, Coffs Harbou...

Nurses today are providing care, education, and case management to an increasingly diverse patient population that is challenged with a triad of cultural, linguistic, and health literacy barriers. For these patients, culture and language set the context for the acquisition and application of health literacy skills. Yet the nursing literature offers minimal help in integrating cultural and lingu...

This report reviews some of the extensive literature in health literacy, much of it focused on the intersection of low literacy and the understanding of basic health care information. Several articles describe methods for assessing health literacy as well as methods for assessing the readability of texts, although generally these latter have not been developed with health materials in mind. Oth...

Nurse practitioners' (NPs) knowledge, experience, and intention to use health literacy strategies in practice were investigated using the Theory of Planned Behavior as the theoretical framework. NPs who work in outpatient settings were recruited at a national NP conference. Participants were administered 3 self-report instruments: Health Literacy Knowledge and Experience Survey, Parts I and II;...