Health Literacy Among Older Adults


Book Description

The first graduate text to address health literacy in the aging population Low health literacy is a critical issue among adults, with over one third found to have difficulty understanding such basic information as that found on prescription bottles. This is the first graduate textbook to address key health literacy issues as they affect the health and wellbeing of the aging population. Embracing a topic spanning numerous disciplines, it features a dynamic, multicontextual systems approach and includes contributions from renowned scholars and practitioners in gerontology, public health, social work, nursing, and other related fields. The text emphasizes increasing health literacy among older adults through the use of technological tools and features, the most current research, and evidence-based programs and practices. The book provides expansive coverage of the intersection of technology and health literacy, highlighting innovative approaches and discussing how to use technology with resource-limited groups. The text gives special consideration to rural, impoverished, culturally diverse, and lowliteracy elders and presents gold standard intervention programs and models. Also covered are the policy implications of programs focusing on increasing health literacy and future directions for meeting the Healthy People 2020 initiative. Case studies, review questions, learning objectives, and supplemental PowerPoint presentations will reinforce learning. Key Features: Provides a one-of-a-kind, multidisciplinary survey of the key health literacy issues of older adults Focuses on increasing health literacy across the disciplines Addresses a priority area of Healthy People 2020 Incorporates research and practice from gerontology, psychology, public health, social work, sociology, medicine, and nursing Includes case studies, review questions, learning objectives, and PowerPoint slides for assisting instructors




Health Literacy in Canada


Book Description

Why do we need health literacy? Through a health promotion and social justice lens, Laurie Hoffman-Goetz, Lorie Donelle, and Rukhsana Ahmed describe health literacy as an increasingly important determinant of health and highlight the necessity of health literacy skills for ensuring equitable access to health care information and services. This core text offers a critical examination of how culture, ethnicity, social media applications, and the literacy and digital divides affect individuals' ability to secure health information, services, and support. Health Literacy in Canada will inform the way we respond to public health issues in Canada and around the world. This pedagogically rich and highly accessible text is ideal for use in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in public health, health promotion, health communication, risk communication and perception, and gerontology. Features: contains extensive learning tools for students, including summaries of key points, questions for reflection, learning exercises, a glossary, and a list of additional resources provides a comprehensive review of fundamental health literacy concepts including definitions, models, and measurement tools emphasizes Canadian-centred examples of health literacy policy milestones offers concrete recommendations for improving health literacy in everyday settings




Advancing Health Literacy


Book Description

Advancing Health Literacy addresses the crisis in health literacy in the United States and around the world. This book thoroughly examines the critical role of literacy in public health and outlines a practical, effective model that bridges the gap between health education, health promotion, and health communication. Step by step, the authors outline the theory and practice of health literacy from a public health perspective. This comprehensive resource includes the history of health literacy, theoretical foundations of health and language literacy, the role of the media, a series of case studies on important topics including prenatal care, anthrax, HIV/AIDS, genomics, and diabetes. The book concludes with a series of practical guidelines for the development and assessment of health communications materials. Also included are essential techniques needed to help people make informed decisions, advocate for themselves and their community, mitigate risk, and live healthier lives.




International Handbook of Health Literacy


Book Description

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Health literacy addresses a range of social dimensions of health, including knowledge, navigation and communication, as well as individual and organizational skills for accessing, understanding, evaluating and using information. Particularly over the past decade, health literacy has globally become a major public health concern as an asset for promoting health, wellbeing and sustainable development. This comprehensive handbook provides an invaluable overview of current international thinking about health literacy, highlighting cutting edge research, policy and practice in the field. With a diverse team of contributors, the book addresses health literacy across the life-span and offers insights from different populations and settings. Providing a wide range of major findings, the book outlines current discourse in the field and examines necessary future dialogues and new perspectives.




Health Literacy


Book Description

As societies grow more complex and people are increasingly bombarded with health information and misinformation, health literacy becomes essential. People with strong health literacy skills enjoy better health and well-being, while those with weaker skills tend to engage in riskier behavior and have poorer health. With evidence from the recent European Health Literacy Survey, this report identifies practical and effective ways public health and other sector authorities and advocates can strengthen health literacy in a variety of settings, including educational settings, workplaces, marketplaces, health systems, new and traditional media and political arenas. The report can be used as a tool for spreading awareness, stimulating debate and research and, above all, for informing policy development and action.




Physical and Health Education in Canada


Book Description

Physical and Health Education in Canada: Integrated Strategies for Elementary Teachers is a compendium of integrated, evidence-based approaches to physical and health education teaching from leading physical and health educators and researchers from across Canada.




Health Literacy in Clinical Practice and Public Health


Book Description

“Health literacy is the ultimate global currency of health and well-being. Without health literacy, medicine fails, public health fails, and people pay the cost for these failures with their lives. As this book goes to press, the world is confronted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Improving health literacy becomes increasingly important if we are to successfully confront the challenges that stress our systems of medicine and public health like never before.” (Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS, former Surgeon General of the United States, in his foreword to this book.) Two years ago, HTI published the book Health Literacy: New Directions in Research, Theory and Practice. Together with that earlier volume, this book: Health Literacy in Clinical Practice and Public Health: New Initiatives and Lessons Learned at the Intersection with other Disciplines, strives to enumerate and expand our understanding of the multidisciplinary connections which underpin the field of health literacy. The book’s balance between research and practice is a response to the feedback the editors received about the previous publication, which focused more on HL theory and research. With reports of specific health literacy research initiatives and interventions, particularly in clinical practice and public health, the book covers contemporary health literacy research and practice and is divided into three sections. Section one explores health literacy’s capacity to foster progress in clinical practice and public health; section two provides insights into health literacy initiatives and lessons learned from diverse healthcare stakeholders; and section three examines health literacy’s similarities with – and differences from – related health research disciplines. The book sets the practice and research of health literacy on an evidence-based, thoughtful, effective, efficient, and applied course. As Dr Richard Carmona says in his foreword: “It is enthusiastically recommended for all health and medical practitioners and researchers.”




Measures of Health Literacy


Book Description

Health literacy-the ability for individuals to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services to facilitate appropriate health decisions-is increasingly recognized as an important facet of health care and health outcomes. Although research on health literacy has grown tremendously in the past decade, there is no widely agreed-upon framework for health literacy as a determinant of health outcomes. Most instruments focus on assessing an individual's health literacy, yet the scope of health literacy reaches far beyond an individual's skills and abilities. Health literacy occurs in the context of the health care system, and therefore measures of health literacy must also assess the demands and complexities of the health care systems with which patients interact. For example, measures are needed to determine how well the system has been organized so that it can be navigated by individuals with different levels of health literacy and how well health organizations are doing at making health information understandable and actionable. To examine what is known about measures of health literacy, the Institute of Medicine convened a workshop. The workshop, summarized in this volume, reviews the current status of measures of health literacy, including those used in the health care setting; discusses possible surrogate measures that might be used to assess health literacy; and explores ways in which health literacy measures can be used to assess patient-centered approaches to care.




Building the Case for Health Literacy


Book Description

The field of health literacy has evolved from one focused on individuals to one that recognizes that health literacy is multidimensional. While communicating in a health literate manner is important for everyone, it is particularly important when communicating with those with limited health literacy who also experience more serious medication errors, higher rates of hospitalization and use of the emergency room, poor health outcomes, and increased mortality. Over the past decade, research has shown that health literacy interventions can significantly impact various areas including health care costs, outcomes, and health disparities. To understand the extent to which health literacy has been shown to be effective at contributing to the Quadruple Aim of improving the health of communities, providing better care, providing affordable care, and improving the experience of the health care team, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a public workshop on building the case for health literacy. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop, and highlights important lessons about the role of health literacy in meeting the Quadruple Aim, case studies of organizations that have adopted health literacy, and discussions among the different stakeholders involved in making the case for health literacy.




Health in Rural Canada


Book Description

Health research in Canada has mostly focused on urban areas, often overlooking the unique issues faced by Canadians living in rural and remote areas. This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the state of rural health and health care in Canada, from coast to coast and in northern communities. Three themes are highlighted: rural places matter to health, rural places are unique, and rural places are dynamic. The contributors bring insights and methodologies from nursing, social work, geography, epidemiology, and sociology and from community-based research to a full spectrum of topics: health literacy, rural health care delivery and training, Aboriginal health, web-based services and their application, rural palliative care, and rural health research and policy. Taken together, these wide-ranging and multifaceted explorations of the dynamic relationship between health and place offer researchers and policy-makers, students and practitioners a valuable resource for understanding the special, ever-changing needs of rural communities.