El Paso Health Literacy Project in School Districts

Seventh and eighth grade level students were targeted for their translation role into English from Spanish, and ability to retain information at that age. The objectives were to assess health knowledge in five topics in a health literacy curriculum in 7 and 8 grades, to measure the degree of awareness between the post-and pre assessment after the intervention, and to determine the attitudes and perceptions of these students vis-à-vis diet, friendships, peer pressure, etc. The study examined whether a health education intervention presented into a health literacy curriculum increases health literacy aptitude, targeted three school districts: Socorro (9 middle schools), Canutillo (2 middle schools), and Ysleta (9 schools), and was conducted from spring 2007 to spring 2008. A chi-square analysis of the pre-and post-assessment test was performed. A total of 2746 respondents to the pre-test and 3016 respondents to the post-test were part of the study. The response rate was 91%.Statistical analyses of the cohort showed that the intervention, though it was new in its implementation and novel, was extremely successful with p-value of less than 0.0001.These items are related to medication importance, its relation to age and dosage, its side effect to allergies, its use in schools, their definition. Another item was the importance of seeking help-everywhere. One item is the importance of good communication.Three limitations to this study were: health literacy trainers, timing of the intervention and funding. This study was instrumental in mobilizing a baseline to implement health literacy in the health curricula in the State.