Health Literacy Missouri and YooMagazine

Low health literacy is “a stronger predictor of a person's health than age, income, employment status, education level, and race,” according to the American Medical Association. In its report, Healthy People 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services identified improved consumer health literacy as an objective, and an important component of health communication. To that end, Health Literacy Missouri (HLM), a nonprofit organization, was created to improve the health of all Missourians through health literacy. HLM builds partnerships with communities and public agencies to ensure that residents have access to health information that is easy to understand and use.Recognizing that access to information is a key determinant in seeking help for health issues, HLM funded an innovative project to introduce the Canadian website, www.yoomagazine.net, to middle and high school-aged children in the United States. YooMagazine features an interactive magazine format and provides professionally- reviewed health information. The website's main goal is to promote health literacy in youth by becoming a daily presence in their lives. YooMagazine contributes to the early detection of difficulties and encourages kids to seek help. The project uses local review, customization, and content vetting by faculty and students at Missouri schools to ensure the information reflects community values and is culturally suitable for each locality. Utilization data identifies which topics receive the most inquiries and gauges the severity of specific problems in particular school buildings. Over time, changes in health literacy can be tracked and analyzed.