Return-Path: <nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h6BHSgC07615; Fri, 11 Jul 2003 13:28:42 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 13:28:42 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <NFBBJCJJCLBEEENELGAGMEMODPAA.sandras@u.washington.edu> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Sandra Smith" <sandras@u.washington.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-health@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-HEALTH:4046] RE: Health Information Literacy - a definition X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 3754 Lines: 80 Erica, Listmates: Glad to know the MLA is working on this. The working definition sets a very high standard. It implies specialized knowledge of health & medicine, health resources; computer literacy; self-advocacy, and a high level of self-efficacy. Synthesis and analysis are advanced literacy skills rarely taught in schools. It may be that only medical librarians can meet this definition. Health literacy definitions have similarly high and perhaps unreasonable expectations of patients and the public. Such definitions do a disservice when individuals are labeled 'low health literate' or having 'marginal health literacy skills', particularly when in the interest of convenience for journal readers the labels are shortend to simply 'illiterate'. WHen such labels make it into poorly protected medical records they can jeopardize employment and relationships. Furthermore, such definitions and labels may serve best to deflect responsibility for bridging comminication gaps from health professionals to patients. In the US, federal and state law and accreditation standards clearly place responsiblity for patient understanding with the professional. An essential question for definition developers is What will we do differently because of the definition? Will we treat people differently when they 'fail'? When a person needs health & medical information, they are almost certain to be stressed emotionally, financially, spiritually and mentally. Stress impairs congitive function. Illness and medication, unfamiliar surroundings and fear interfere with cognitive function. The NALS introduced the concept of functional literacy which says a person may be highly literate in some situations (familiar surroundings, usual routines, using information directly related to their job or their specialty). The same person becomes rapidly less functionally literate when ill, stressed, medicated, in unfamiliar settings, readin or hearing unfamiliar terms describing unfamiliar topics. Helathcare and Medicine each have their own language, full of specialized and 'common' terms which are rarely heard in everyday conversation and rife with everday terms to which we assign special meaning (provider, stool, screen, a negative test result is positive and a positive result is negative unless its a false positive) Can we ethically require patients to come around to our (highly trained and unique) ways of thinking and using the language in order to benefit from our services? All this suggests to me that everyone is likely to be 'health illiterate' at the time they need health information. It seems senisible then to assume that everyone has low health literacy and low health information literacy and to employ universal precautions that focus on what we can do to better serve patients/clients instead of on the patients' deficiencies. Sandra Smith, MPH CHES 800-444-8806 Health Education Specialist University of Washington Center for Health Education & Research Edito, Beginnings Guides sandras@u.washington.edu -----Original Message----- From:Erica Burnham t our goal is to define health *information* literacy, and the librarian's role in this area. Is there a difference between "health literacy" and "health information literacy"? Our working definition is as follows: Health Information Literacy is the set of knowledge and skills needed to: recognize a health information need; . identify likely information sources in an appropriate format and use them to retrieve relevant information; assess the quality of the information and its applicability to a specific situation; analyze, understand, and synthesize the information; and apply the information to make good health decisions. [Medical Library Association, 2003]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Mar 11 2004 - 12:17:10 EST