Health Literacy Toolkit

Background Information

• The Health Literacy of America's Adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy,
  National Center for Education Statistics
• Health Literacy Interventions and Outcomes: An Updated Systematic Review, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2011
• National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy, U. S Department of Health and Human Services, 2010
• "What Did the Doctor Say?:" Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety, The Joint Commission
• Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient-Centered Care: A Roadmap for Hospitals, The Joint Commission
• Health Literacy and Patient Safety: Help Patients Understand, American Medical Association, 2007
  (video 23 minutes)
  

Tools to Create Understandable Health Information

• Health Literacy: Accurate, Accessible, and Actionable Health Information for All, Centers for Disease Control
• Teaching Patients with Low Literacy Skills
• Deciphering Medspeak,, Medical Library Association
• Plain Language.gov, Plain Language Action and Information Network
  Examples and tools for developing plain language materials.
• Simply Put, Centers for Disease Control and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
• Health Literacy Online, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
• Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
• How to Write Easy to Read Health Materials, MedlinePlus
• Pfizer Principles for Clear Health Communication, Pfizer Clear Health Communication Initiative
• Clear & Simple: Developing Effective Print Materials for Low-Literate Readers, National Cancer Institute
• Beyond the Brochure: Alternative Approaches to Effective Health Communication, Centers for Disease Control
• How to Create a Pill Card, Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research
• USP Pictograms, U.S. Pharmacopeia (registration is required)
• Quick Guide To Health Literacy, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
• Hispanics/Latinas: Developing Effective Cancer Education Materials, Susan G. Komen for the Cure
• Working with Your Older Patient: A Clinicians Handbook, National Institute on Aging
• PRISM Readability Toolkit, Group Health Center for Health Studies
  Tips on how to create consent forms.

Assessment Tools

Tools to measure patients' health literacy and the readability of materials.

• The Newest Vital Sign: A New Health Literacy Assessment Tool for Health Care Providers,
  Pfizer Clear Health Communication Initiative. An English and Spanish screening tool to identify patients at risk for low health literacy. Test results give providers information to use in their communications practices to improve health outcomes.
• SMOG (Simple Measure of Gobbledygook) Readability Calculator
  Tool to measure the reading grade level of materials.
• The Health Literacy Environment Review, National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy
• Flesch-Kincaid Reading Level
  Built into Microsoft Word. Counts word syllables and sentence length. Only calculates up to grade 12 in Word 2002, but goes higher in later versions of Word. Consult instructions to enable this feature in Word.

Initiatives

• Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit, The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
  This toolkit is designed to help adult and pediatric practices ensure that systems are in place to promote better understanding by all patients, not just those you think need extra assistance. The toolkit is divided into manageable chunks so that its implementation can fit into the busy day of a practice.
• Ask Me 3 Program, National Patient Safety Foundation

Additional Information

• Citations on health literacy from PubMed