The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #66513

Ann C Klassen, PhD¹, Sharada Shankar, PhD², Ting Wang, MHS², Richard Cain, MEd¹, Peter S. Houts, PhD³, and Elizabeth Garrett, PhD³. (1) Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 624 N Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410 955 2218, aklassen@jhsph.edu, (2) Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 615 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, (3) Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, 401 N Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21231-2410

Community based health education offers opportunities to bring health enhancing skills to low resource populations, who may have barriers to gaining health education through mainstream mechanisms. However, readiness to learn is often hard to measure in adult populations, and may limit intervention effectiveness. We investigated readiness to learn in 100+ adult women age 20 to 50 residing in public housing in the District of Columbia. Analyses present findings from face-to-face surveys collected at the time of the women's recruitment into a small group intervention, funded by the American Cancer Society, designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among participants and their families.

There was a wide range in multiple factors influencing readiness to learn. Prior educational exposure ranged from 4 to 16 years, with a median of 12 years. Scores on the REALM (Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine) ranged from 0 to 66 out of 66 words pronounced correctly, indicating reading estimates from below third to above ninth grade. Although formal education was associated with REALM score, 46% read below their educational exposure level. We examined participants’ self-assessment of formal schooling experiences, self assessment of adult learning style and experiences, and discrepancies between years of educational exposure and literacy, and then looked at the effect of these factors, in combination with other psychological and social influences, on self efficacy regarding program goals and behavioral change. Results will be discussed in the context of adult health education interventions in low resource communities.

Learning Objectives:

• Audience members will be able to discuss different measures of adult readiness to learn in the context of health education
• Audience members will be able to discuss barriers to behavior change from the perspective of adult learning

Keywords: Food and Nutrition, Cancer Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.