CABI Blog

On May 27, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the
National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy.  The long-awaited action plan is aimed at
making health information and services easier to understand and use. It seeks
to engage organizations, professionals, policymakers, communities, individuals
and families around improving the health literacy of our nation.

The plan comes at an important time. More than 90 million people in the
United States have difficulty understanding and effectively using health
information such as following the directions on prescription drug labels or
understanding insurance forms. However, consumers are increasingly being asked
to take a greater role in managing their health, especially with the recent
passage of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which stresses
prevention.

If health reform is to succeed we need to improve people’s health
literacy as well as make health information easier to understand. Studies show
that low health literacy can lead to more emergency room visits, a more
difficult time managing chronic diseases such as diabetes or high blood
pressure and even death at a younger age.

The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy lays out seven goals
focused on initiatives such as improving communication in the health care
system, building partnerships and incorporating relevant health and science
lessons into the educational system. For the complete list, go to http://www.health.gov/communication/HLActionPlan.

At Health Literacy Missouri, we are working on initiatives that address
each of the seven goals. Our efforts include disseminating health information
through our website (www.healthliteracymissouri.org), online library database and social media. We also oversee 26 demonstration projects
throughout Missouri that are focused on improving health literacy on a
community level and we are raising awareness among state and national
professional organizations of the importance of health literacy.

We believe the national action plan is an opportunity to do even more to
improve health literacy and we welcome your comments and interest.

• To further raise awareness of this new field, an expert
  search for health literacy will be  available to OVID users. For subscribers
  of CAB-Direct, the searchstring is

  ("health
  literacy" OR (de:"health education" OR de:(literacy AND health*)
  OR (cc:UU360 AND de:"health promotion"))) NOT de:"health care
  workers"

• Health Literacy is the theme for the July issue of our e-newsletter Global Health Knowledge Base, highlighting important articles found on our database.

• Use this link to find how HLM is meeting the  US national action plan.

1. Double impact: educational attainment and the macronutrient intake
   of US adults. Variyam, J. N.  from "Health, nutrition and food
   demand" 2003, pp. 53-72. Book Chapter. Fulltext available in our
   Global Health repository.
2. Special issue: Education for informed citizenship.
   Revista Brasileira de Saúde Materno Infantil 2007 Vol. 7 No. Suplemento.1
   pp. S1-S226.
3. Health literacy: collaborating to educate professionals.Journal
   of Consumer Health on the Internet 2010 Vol. 14 No. 2 pp. 184-192.
4. A low-literacy medication education tool for safety-net
   hospital patients. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2009 Vol.
   37 No. 6 Suppl. 1 pp. S209-S216.
5. Experiences of prevention of mother to child transmission
   services by HIV+mothers in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. African
   Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance 2008 Vol. 14
   No. 1 pp. 63-87.
6. Stroke awareness in two rural counties in
   Mississippi, USA   Shiraz E. Medical Journal 2008 Vol. 9 No. 2
   pp. 68-74.