Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Christine Hollis, MPH, MPS, FCM-Health Evaluation and Research Office, University of New Mexico, 2730 San Pedro, NE (MSC09-5040), Suite B, Albuquerque, NM 87131, 505-272-1601, chollis@salud.unm.edu, Deborah L. Helitzer, ScD, Health Evaluation and Research Office, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, MSC 09-5040, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001, and Jane Cotner, MS, Cancer Research & Treatment Center, University of New Mexico, MSC11 6020 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131.

Many who write health materials assume that if text has shorter sentences and few polysyllabic words it is suitable for low-literate audiences—almost 20% of Americans. However, being health literate encompasses more than the ability to read; it requires the competency to acquire relevant knowledge and skills to make appropriate health decisions. To enhance health literacy, we must create print materials that are not only readable, but also comprehensible. Comprehensibility includes factors like text format, organization, framing, brevity, appeal, relevance, cultural concerns, idea complexity and number of messages to remember. Adding to this complexity, readers also call upon three different sets of literacy skills—prose, document (tables, graphs) and numeric—to interpret, understand and use various health materials. Currently available tools do not provide a comprehensive understanding of what types of “demands” health promotion materials place on users. Demand includes readability, comprehensibility, suitability, complexity, and content coverage of health–related competencies (knowledge, skills, dispositions).

We developed a method and instruments to assess the health literacy demand of commonly available print materials. We tested the method and instruments on HPV/Cervical cancer prevention materials covering five health activity areas (health promotion, health protection, disease prevention, health care/maintenance, and systems navigation). These areas were identified by Rudd, Kirsch and Yamamoto (2004) in developing the Health Activities Literacy Scale (HALS). Results provide a more comprehensive way to measure the overall health literacy demand that materials place on users, and will be useful in designing more appropriate materials for low-literate readers.

Learning Objectives: