Health Literacy is never complete because people's health status
changes. Most people are motivated to learn more (become more health
literate) when they and/or their friends/families/clients are diagnosed
with illness.
In my opinion, it most effective to think of health literacy as a life
long learning process, just as I conceptualize myself as a "lifelong
learner".    

Jan Goldberg, City Research Scientist II
Office of Child and Family Health
150 William Street  14th Floor
New York, New York  10038
212-676-6878

"There's no place like your home..Adopt - I did and it's great!

Life offers us tickets to places which we have not knowingly asked
for..."    Maya Angelou
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Subject: HealthLiteracy Digest, Vol 30, Issue 20

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Today's Topics:

   1. [HealthLiteracy 1862] Re: Wednesday Question: How does health
      literacy help promote all-around literacy? (Jan Potter)
   2. [HealthLiteracy 1863] Assessing readability of Spanish
      language	materials? (Eileen Hanlon)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:18:36 -0400
From: "Jan Potter" <jpotter at gha.org>
Subject: [HealthLiteracy 1862] Re: Wednesday Question: How does health
	literacy help promote all-around literacy?
To: "The Health and Literacy Discussion List"
	<healthliteracy at nifl.gov>
Message-ID: <FFE7C75CEE15B042B0453ABA750444DD704947 at email.gha.local>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

That is a very interesting observation that I really hadn't thought too
much about previously.  My personal reaction is that adult literacy has
long been a "have-not" issue - that is, it is something that is
perceived to be applicable to only a narrow range of society (regardless
of what actually is true).  Therefore, we like to pigeon-hole it into
our category of "others that we can and should help."  With the advent
of all the publicity about such issues as medical errors and patient
safety, suddenly the question of what we can read or perceive has become
a "we" issue instead of a "them" issue.  Now we seem to all be striving
for more information.  One method of change implementation is the idea
of patient empowerment and, unfortunately, that may continue to be an
obstacle to those with significant literacy issues.

 

The biggest problem that I see in health literacy is that it is very
difficult to measure just how much someone knows - especially when the
need for that knowledge might occur in a time or enormous stress and
consequence.  I work in health literacy - I know all the drills - I know
what the doctor is talking about - but that doesn't necessarily mean
that I will understand something said to me when I am under stress.  I
know that the number one way to stop hospital infections is for everyone
to wash their hands.  Does that mean that I will demand that a doctor
(who's about to do something that might be painful to me) to wash their
hands?  The last thing I want to do is anger him or her.  I guess that's
why I'm such a fan of pictures to get a point across.  If I'm wearing a
button that says, "Stop!  Did you wash your hands" it takes it out of
the realm of me reproving a medical person.

 

I don't know how that would translate to adult literacy, though.  Maybe
we just all need a button that says, "Ask me if I understand!"

 

 

Jan Potter, MSTC

Communications Specialist

Partnership for Health and Accountability

770-249-4549

www.gha.org/pha <http://www.gha.org/pha>  

 

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

 

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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:19:12 -0400
From: "Eileen Hanlon" <ehanlon at aed.org>
Subject: [HealthLiteracy 1863] Assessing readability of Spanish
	language	materials?
To: <healthliteracy at nifl.gov>
Message-ID: <47E399B1020000BC0001300E at smtp.aed.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Dear Listserv friends. We have been asked to conduct consumer testing
with Latino families, to ask them to review a 40-page booklet. Before we
do so, we would like to check the reading level. Can anyone recommend
which method is best to use in Spanish? 

Best,
Eileen Hanlon
AED
Washington DC


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