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[HealthLiteracy 2070] two assessment resourcesMarg Rose bcmrose at telus.netWed Jun 11 02:24:13 EDT 2008
Two resources may assist you in measuring and reporting on health literacy rates: 1. If you contact Dr. Scott Murray, he could consult on the health literacy survey that he used, and tied to the IALS/ALLS Adult Literacy and Life Skills data set to make a compelling case for the correlations between low health literacy and low health, economic stability, education, etc. He's at baboon at rogers.blackberry.net. A list of his publications shows you the depth of his scholarship to lend a seasoned statistician's eye to your survey: http://library.nald.ca/research/browse/author?name=T.+Scott+Murray 2. A team of researchers at the University of Victoria have designed an e-survey for teens to measure their ability to understand and use information about their health. Contact Deborah Begoray (dbegoray at uvic.ca) or Dr. Irv Rootman, the Exec Director of the Health and Learning Knowledge Centre of the Canadian Council on Learning (irootman at telus.net) for information or to test drive their model. Marg Rose Victoria, BC "Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it." ~Irving Berlin -----Original Message----- From: healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of healthliteracy-request at nifl.gov Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:41 AM To: healthliteracy at nifl.gov Subject: HealthLiteracy Digest, Vol 33, Issue 5 Send HealthLiteracy mailing list submissions to healthliteracy at nifl.gov To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/healthliteracy or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to healthliteracy-request at nifl.gov You can reach the person managing the list at healthliteracy-owner at nifl.gov When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of HealthLiteracy digest..." Today's Topics: 1. [HealthLiteracy 2060] Re: health literacy assessment survey (MSkewes at ria.buffalo.edu) 2. [HealthLiteracy 2061] Re: Health Literacy Assessment Survey (Seubert, Douglas) 3. [HealthLiteracy 2062] Adult Education Content Standards Discussion begins Monday (David J. Rosen) 4. [HealthLiteracy 2063] Re: Health Literacy Assessment Survey (Brach, Cindy (AHRQ)) 5. [HealthLiteracy 2064] Re: New current awareness resource on healthliteracy resources (MSkewes at ria.buffalo.edu) 6. [HealthLiteracy 2065] Universal Precautions Toolkit for Primary Care (DeWalt, Darren) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 14:06:03 -0400 From: MSkewes at ria.buffalo.edu Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2060] Re: health literacy assessment survey To: The Health and Literacy Discussion List <healthliteracy at nifl.gov> Message-ID: <OF5146F003.472A7F30-ON85257460.00633FCC-85257460.00637C3E at ria.buffalo.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Perhaps you can take a random sample of the population (using random digit dialing or some other effective method of random sampling) and administer the S-TOFHLA, REALM, NVS, or other measure of health literacy. If random sampling is done properly, you should be able to generalize from your sample to the population of interest. Just an idea! Best, Monica Monica C. Skewes, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Associate Research Institute on Addictions University at Buffalo The State University of New York 1021 Main Street Buffalo, New York 14203 716-887-2242 (phone) 716-887-2510 (fax) "Janet Sorensen" <Jsorensen at afmc.org> Sent by: healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov 06/06/2008 12:00 PM Please respond to The Health and Literacy Discussion List <healthliteracy at nifl.gov> To <healthliteracy at nifl.gov> cc Subject [HealthLiteracy 2058] health literacy assessment survey Matt, if you or whoever replies to you would cc me (or possibly the whole list if anyone else is interested), I'd greatly appreciate it. We're working on assessing the health literacy of the Medicaid population in a specific county in Arkansas, and I'd love to see some examples of this kind of survey or other tools. Thanks! Janet Sorensen Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care From: healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Matt Gayer Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 5:19 PM To: healthliteracy at nifl.gov Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2053] Health Literacy Assessment Survey Hello All- I am health literacy intern this summer at a county health department in Missouri. My first goal is to assess the current health literacy rate of the county so we can identify strengths and weaknesses, then prepare an implementation plan tailored to best fit the community. In order to assess current health literacy, I proposed that a survey of some sort would probably be necessary in order to formulate our initial research. I have been able to thus far find any examples of such a survey/questionnaire, and was wondering if anyone had used/created one or knew from where I could find one. I very much appreciate any help with this as I prepare to begin the first steps in our new health literacy program. Thank you. *************************************************************************** CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information in this E-mail is confidential and may be privileged. This E-mail is intended solely for the named recipient or recipients. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, disclosure, copying or distribution of this E-mail is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please inform us by replying with the subject line marked "Wrong Address" and then deleting this E-mail and any attachments. Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, Inc. (AFMC) uses regularly updated anti-virus software in an attempt to reduce the possibility of transmitting computer viruses. We do not guarantee, however, that any attachments to this E-mail are virus-free. ***************************************************************** Janet Sorensen Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care 501-212-8644 *************************************************************************** CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information in this E-mail is confidential and may be privileged. This E-mail is intended solely for the named recipient or recipients. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, disclosure, copying or distribution of this E-mail is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please inform us by replying with the subject line marked "Wrong Address" and then deleting this E-mail and any attachments. Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, Inc. (AFMC) uses regularly updated anti-virus software in an attempt to reduce the possibility of transmitting computer viruses. We do not guarantee, however, that any attachments to this E-mail are virus-free. *************************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Health and Literacy mailing list HealthLiteracy at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/healthliteracy Email delivered to mskewes at ria.buffalo.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/healthliteracy/attachments/20080606/5888bbb4/a ttachment-0001.html ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:57:53 -0500 From: "Seubert, Douglas" <seubert.douglas at marshfieldclinic.org> Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2061] Re: Health Literacy Assessment Survey To: "healthliteracy at nifl.gov" <healthliteracy at nifl.gov>, "Jsorensen at afmc.org" <Jsorensen at afmc.org>, "mcggayer at sbcglobal.net" <mcggayer at sbcglobal.net> Message-ID: <200806061859.m56IxUft003265 at mailhost2.mfldclin.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" If you really want to do a thorough survey to assess the health literacy of a county population, there are probably many areas you'd need to cover in your questionnaire. The example of the Low Literacy Prevalence Calculator I mentioned in my previous post is a good starting point. It looks at these key areas: Percent over 65 years of age Percent enrolled in Medicaid or other public assistance program Percentage that are White Percentage that are Black (African American) Percentage that are Hispanic Percentage that mainly speak a language other than English So, you would want to collect demographic data on age, gender, race (would asking about a person's primary language be part of race?). Considering those enrolled in Medicaid or other public assistance programs is only one aspect concerning income and poverty status. What the calculator does is look at some of the BIG factors impacting literacy. (see my closing comments below for more on this). An example of a comprehensive health survey that covers many of these key areas -- and has lots of sample questions -- is the California Health Interview Survey conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research in 2007. The results were just released in March 2008. You can view the entire report here: http://www.chis.ucla.edu/pdf/CHIS2007_adult_q.pdf For a "health literacy" survey, you might want to consider questions from these areas: SECTION A – DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION, PART I Age Gender Ethnicity Race Marital Status SECTION G – DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION, PART II Country of Birth Language Spoken at Home Additional Language Use Citizenship and Immigration Child and Teen Selection Paid Child Care, Cost Educational Attainment SECTION K – EMPLOYMENT, INCOME, POVERTY STATUS, FOOD SECURITY Hours Worked Income Last Month Annual Household Income Number of persons supported Poverty level test Food Availability in Household Hunger SECTION L - PUBLIC PROGRAM PARTICIPATION TANF/CalWORKS Food Stamps Supplemental Security Income WIC Assets Alimony/Child Support Social security/Pension Payments SECTION M – HOUSING, PARKS, TRANSPORTATION Housing OK, that's a lot of ground to cover! Most of this data is probably already collected in your state and is available by county. Since we know some of the BIG factors that impact literacy, we can conclude that they also effect health literacy. Both, however, crossover into every part of our culture. Asking someone's race, education level and employment status may not tell you anything about their health literacy level. For that you almost need to use one of the health literacy assessment tools like REALM or TOFHLA. I suppose you could include some demographic questions and then as a few questions specific to health literacy. But as stated many times by many experts, health literacy fluctuates. Stress, hearing bad news from a doctor, anxiety, exhaustion, and any number of uncontrollable factors can effect understanding. How do you collect that type of information in a survey? Also, keep in mind these studies: Evidence does not support clinical screening of literacy --- According to a recent article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, clinical screening for literacy is not recommended: "Limited health literacy is a significant risk factor for adverse health outcomes. Despite controversy, many health care professionals have called for routine clinical screening of patients' literacy skills. Whereas brief literacy screening tools exist that with further evaluation could potentially be used to detect limited literacy in clinical settings, no screening program for limited literacy has been shown to be effective. Yet there is a noted potential for harm, in the form of shame and alienation, which might be induced through clinical screening. There is fair evidence to suggest that possible harm outweighs any current benefits; therefore, clinical screening for literacy should not be recommended at this time." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17992564?ordinalpos=5&itool=EntrezSyst em2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum Patients' shame and attitudes toward discussing the results of literacy screening --- Health care providers must recognize the potential shame patients might experience as a result of literacy screening. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18030638?ordinalpos=7&itool=EntrezSystem2 .PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum AND MOST INTERESTING OF ALL --- Brief report: screening items to identify patients with limited health literacy skills: According to this study, one screening question, "How confident are you filling out medical forms by yourself?" was accurate in detecting limited and limited/marginal health literacy skills. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16881950?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2 .PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_R A&linkpos=3&log$=relatedarticles&dbfrom=pubmed According to this study, researchers were able to accurately predict which patients had low health literacy skills by asking one question. The results were just as accurate had they used REALM or TOFHLA. So maybe your survey only needs one question???? The idea of a survey for a large population seems like a lot of effort and expense, especially since NAAL already did that for you. We know the BIG factors that impact literacy, and they carry over into health literacy (race, language spoken, education level, employment status) and you should already have access to this information for your county. A survey won't measure those uncontrollable things that effect us all day to day. Who among us hasn't experienced a time when we didn't understand what someone was telling us (for any of the various reasons I already mentioned). If you give me the TOHFLA test I'd do really well. Or if I took the NAAL survey (http://nces.ed.gov/NAAL/sample_results.asp) right now I'd score in the proficient range. Under stress I wouldn't do as well. So, think about using the data already available to you. Create a demographic profile of your county population. List out the BIG factors. Estimate how many people might have low literacy. Use more of your time and energy for educating health care organizations and social services in your community about the need to communicate clearly. Consider the "universal design" concept. Everyone benefits from clear, simple communication. Doug Seubert Quality Improvement & Care Management Family Health Center/Community Heath Access Marshfield Clinic 1000 N Oak Avenue Marshfield, WI 54449 www.marshfieldclinic.org/quality (715) 387-5096 (1-800-782-8581 ext. 75096) seubert.douglas at marshfieldclinic.org ------Original Message------ From: "Matt Gayer" <mcggayer at sbcglobal.net> Date: Thu Jun 05, 2008 -- 09:12:38 PM To: healthliteracy at nifl.gov Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2053] Health Literacy Assessment Survey Hello All- I am health literacy intern this summer at a county health department in Missouri. My first goal is to assess the current health literacy rate of the county so we can identify strengths and weaknesses, then prepare an implementation plan tailored to best fit the community. In order to assess current health literacy, I proposed that a survey of some sort would probably be necessary in order to formulate our initial research. I have been able to thus far find any examples of such a survey/questionnaire, and was wondering if anyone had used/created one or knew from where I could find one. I very much appreciate any help with this as I prepare to begin the first steps in our new health literacy program. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Health and Literacy mailing list HealthLiteracy at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/healthliteracy Email delivered to seubert.douglas at marshfieldclinic.org ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2008 18:16:07 -0400 From: "David J. Rosen" <djrosen at comcast.net> Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2062] Adult Education Content Standards Discussion begins Monday To: The Assessment Discussion List <assessment at nifl.gov>, The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List <englishlanguage at nifl.gov>, The Family Literacy Discussion List <familyliteracy at nifl.gov>, The Health and Literacy Discussion List <healthliteracy at nifl.gov>, The Learning Disabilities Discussion List <learningdisabilities at nifl.gov>, diversity at nifl.gov, The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List <professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>, The Technology and Literacy Discussion List <technology at nifl.gov>, The Workplace Literacy Discussion List <workplace at nifl.gov> Message-ID: <400CCBA2-EDA0-47AF-A425-C601C0A8AB3E at comcast.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Colleagues, Beginning Monday, June 9th, and continuing through Friday, June 20th, on the National Institute for Literacy Special Topics list, we will discuss the implementation of state adult education content standards. Experts from several states will talk about the opportunities and challenges they have experienced as they work with teachers, administrators and others who are developing curriculum, and designing and teaching lessons that reflect their state's content standards. Our guests include: Miriam Kroeger, from Arizona; Raye Nell Spillman, from Louisiana; Karen Lisch Gianninoto, from Maryland; Judy Franks, from Ohio; Pam Blundel, from Oklahoma; Philip Anderson, from Florida; and Federico Salas, from Texas. You will find background information on all of our guest experts below. I hope you will join us for this discussion. I hope you will also forward this announcement to your colleagues who may be interested! To subscribe to the discussion, go to: http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/specialtopics You can unsubscribe later by going to the same web page or, if you prefer, you can stay subscribed for the next discussion. Adult Education Content Standards Warehouse Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the Adult Education Content Standards Warehouse "provides access to materials for developing, aligning, and implementing adult education content standards in the areas of English language acquisition, mathematics, and reading. On this site you can find content standards from a variety of states and organizations; learn about the process of developing standards in A Process Guide for Establishing State Adult Education Content Standards; and find field resources on professional development and national and international standards." The web site address is: http://www.adultedcontentstandards.ed.gov/ Background on Discussion Guests Philip Anderson started his English teaching career in 1974 as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. English teaching was a sideline to his main project of helping farmers groups with pig raising projects. After Peace Corps, Phil continued to live in the Dominican Republic as a pastor for small church groups, and he continued to teach English to adults who wanted to emigrate to the U.S. In 1986, he returned to the states to finish college at UC Davis. With a MS in community development, Phil went to Haiti in 1991. There, Phil taught woodworking at a vocational school, taught English, managed a large soil conservation project (not all at the same time)! In 1995, Phil returned to the states, and became a part- time adult ESOL instructor at night for Palm Beach county in Belle Glade, Florida. In 1998, he joined the adult ESOL program at South Florida Community College, where he was department chair from 2000-2004. Since 2004, Phil has worked at the Florida Department of Education. There Phil manages EL Civics state leadership grants and provides technical assistance trainings to adult ESOL instructors statewide. Pam Blundell has been involved in Oklahoma's development and implementation of content standards since 2002-2003 when the state held its first discussions around the possibility of introducing the Equipped for the Future (EFF) teaching and learning system to the field. Pam was given the task of overseeing the state's first EFF pilot project in 2003-2004. During the EFF pilot year, the state decided to expand the EFF training and officially adopt EFF content standards statewide. At that time, Pam was asked to coordinate this long-term process. Pam has continued to be directly involved in the implementation and oversight of the integration of content standards into the adult education classroom. This process has involved the development of new tools and training processes and most recently, leading the state's Standards-In-Action (SIA) team. Prior to coming to the state, Pam worked as an adult education teacher integrating EFF standards into instruction. Judy Franks is currently on staff at the Ohio Literacy Resource Center as a Literacy Projects Coordinator. She was involved originally with the Equipped for the Future (EFF) Standards-based System Reform Initiative, coordinating the Ohio Research Field Sites and training as a Certified State Facilitator. Judy has had experience developing and working with the standards at the program, state, and national levels. As a veteran instructor of training and development courses, Judy's background in adult basic education since 1992 includes family literacy, GED classroom instruction and the development of a workforce training program. Karen Lisch Gianninoto's involvement with the Maryland Content Standards for Adults ESL/ESOL began when she was working part-time as an ESL instructor. She "was one of the teachers complaining from the field that we needed standards". As a full time high school teacher, she knew how helpful standards were in guiding instruction. Not long after, she was appointed to the ESL Workgroup that developed the content standards document. Four years ago, she became the ESL Specialist for the Maryland State Department of Education. When she took the position, she was "grateful the content standards were finished. Little did I know that my work was just beginning. Over the past four years, the content standards have been revised three times, the ESL content standards have been implemented in all of Maryland's programs, state trainers have completed a training process, and a training manual was completed. Yet, there is more to learn about standards. Maryland has been most fortunate to participate in the CAELA and SIA Projects funded through OVAE. These projects have helped Maryland refine our training and provided instructors with the tools to understand content standards." Miriam Kroeger has been involved in Adult Education as a volunteer, teacher, coordinator, administrator and specialist since 1972 and in Arizona since 1978. She has taught adult English learners and adults studying for their secondary school credential at a variety of locations including elementary and secondary schools, community colleges, jails, and prisons; she works with K-12 and adult educators, and has visited teachers throughout the state of Arizona. Miriam has served on state, regional and national committees; on the boards of the Arizona Association for Lifelong Learning, the Mountain Plains Adult Education Association and Arizona Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. She has been on national working groups involved with adult education standards and teacher development and was an original team member in the development and implementation of Arizona's Standards for Adult Learners. She was also a member of the Standards Specialist/Resource Teachers team that assisted programs and instructors in the implementation of the standards. As an Education Program Specialist in the Arizona Department of Education, Adult Education Services unit during the past six years, one of her responsibilities was to spearhead the revisions to the Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Social Studies and ELAA (ESOL) Arizona Adult Education Standards. These revisions were published in December 2007, and the training process in understanding and utilizing the standards continues. Federico Salas-Isnardi is Assistant State Director of Adult Education in Texas. He oversees the Professional Development System in the state. He has worked for 20 years in the field of adult Education as an ESL and GED instructor, professional developer, curriculum writer, and program administrator. He has trained adult educators for over 18 years on topics ranging from language acquisition to individualized professional development planning, and from cross- cultural communication and multicultural awareness to educational leadership. Between 2004 and 2007, Federico represented the state office of adult education in the AE Content Standards Project team that adopted the standards and wrote the benchmarks for Texas AE Content Standards document. In that capacity he worked with the project staff and observed the work of the standards writers. He also helped articulate the vision of the state in regards to the adoption process. During the first two years of the project, Federico was the state?s liaison to the National Adult Education Content Standards Consortium. Raye Nell D. Spillman has worked in the Louisiana State Department of Education, Office of School and Community Support, Adult and Family Literacy Services for four years. Ms. Spillman holds an undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in the field of education. She has taught in the K-12 public education system and served on numerous committees to advance the education of children and adults. After the approval and adoption of The Louisiana Adult Education Content Standards in October 2006, Ms. Spillman was instrumental in introducing the standards to adult education instructors across the state in collaboration with the Louisiana Association for Public, Community and Adult Education. The following summer, Louisiana applied for and was one of six states accepted to participate in OVAE's Standards-in-Action (SIA) project. Ms. Spillman headed the Louisiana team who accepted their charge to pilot test training materials for implementing adult education standards use in the classroom. Again this year, Ms. Spillman and the Louisiana team are looking forward to participating in Part 2 of the Standards-in-Action project. David J. Rosen National Institute for Literacy Special Topics Discussion Moderator Djrosen at comcast.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/healthliteracy/attachments/20080607/774e7360/a ttachment-0001.html ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 13:51:21 -0400 From: "Brach, Cindy (AHRQ)" <Cindy.Brach at ahrq.hhs.gov> Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2063] Re: Health Literacy Assessment Survey To: "The Health and Literacy Discussion List" <healthliteracy at nifl.gov> Message-ID: <04B4EF9F9E334C48903C284C4B16A19708A1F891 at AVN3VS004.ees.hhs.gov> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Nikki Lurie at RAND and A.I.R. (the contractor that conducted the NAAL) are developing a geographic health literacy estimator using NAAL health literacy data. I believe they will have a working model for one state this summer, and plan to expand it further pending additional funding. Cindy Brach Center Delivery, Organization, and Markets Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850 301-427-1444 fax: 301-427-1430 Cindy.Brach at ahrq.hhs.gov ________________________________ From: healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Seubert, Douglas Sent: Fri 6/6/2008 2:57 PM To: healthliteracy at nifl.gov; Jsorensen at afmc.org; mcggayer at sbcglobal.net Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2061] Re: Health Literacy Assessment Survey If you really want to do a thorough survey to assess the health literacy of a county population, there are probably many areas you'd need to cover in your questionnaire. The example of the Low Literacy Prevalence Calculator I mentioned in my previous post is a good starting point. It looks at these key areas: Percent over 65 years of age Percent enrolled in Medicaid or other public assistance program Percentage that are White Percentage that are Black (African American) Percentage that are Hispanic Percentage that mainly speak a language other than English So, you would want to collect demographic data on age, gender, race (would asking about a person's primary language be part of race?). Considering those enrolled in Medicaid or other public assistance programs is only one aspect concerning income and poverty status. What the calculator does is look at some of the BIG factors impacting literacy. (see my closing comments below for more on this). An example of a comprehensive health survey that covers many of these key areas -- and has lots of sample questions -- is the California Health Interview Survey conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research in 2007. The results were just released in March 2008. You can view the entire report here: http://www.chis.ucla.edu/pdf/CHIS2007_adult_q.pdf For a "health literacy" survey, you might want to consider questions from these areas: SECTION A - DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION, PART I Age Gender Ethnicity Race Marital Status SECTION G - DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION, PART II Country of Birth Language Spoken at Home Additional Language Use Citizenship and Immigration Child and Teen Selection Paid Child Care, Cost Educational Attainment SECTION K - EMPLOYMENT, INCOME, POVERTY STATUS, FOOD SECURITY Hours Worked Income Last Month Annual Household Income Number of persons supported Poverty level test Food Availability in Household Hunger SECTION L - PUBLIC PROGRAM PARTICIPATION TANF/CalWORKS Food Stamps Supplemental Security Income WIC Assets Alimony/Child Support Social security/Pension Payments SECTION M - HOUSING, PARKS, TRANSPORTATION Housing OK, that's a lot of ground to cover! Most of this data is probably already collected in your state and is available by county. Since we know some of the BIG factors that impact literacy, we can conclude that they also effect health literacy. Both, however, crossover into every part of our culture. Asking someone's race, education level and employment status may not tell you anything about their health literacy level. For that you almost need to use one of the health literacy assessment tools like REALM or TOFHLA. I suppose you could include some demographic questions and then as a few questions specific to health literacy. But as stated many times by many experts, health literacy fluctuates. Stress, hearing bad news from a doctor, anxiety, exhaustion, and any number of uncontrollable factors can effect understanding. How do you collect that type of information in a survey? Also, keep in mind these studies: Evidence does not support clinical screening of literacy --- According to a recent article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, clinical screening for literacy is not recommended: "Limited health literacy is a significant risk factor for adverse health outcomes. Despite controversy, many health care professionals have called for routine clinical screening of patients' literacy skills. Whereas brief literacy screening tools exist that with further evaluation could potentially be used to detect limited literacy in clinical settings, no screening program for limited literacy has been shown to be effective. Yet there is a noted potential for harm, in the form of shame and alienation, which might be induced through clinical screening. There is fair evidence to suggest that possible harm outweighs any current benefits; therefore, clinical screening for literacy should not be recommended at this time." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17992564?ordinalpos=5&itool=EntrezSyst em2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum Patients' shame and attitudes toward discussing the results of literacy screening --- Health care providers must recognize the potential shame patients might experience as a result of literacy screening. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18030638?ordinalpos=7&itool=EntrezSystem2 .PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum AND MOST INTERESTING OF ALL --- Brief report: screening items to identify patients with limited health literacy skills: According to this study, one screening question, "How confident are you filling out medical forms by yourself?" was accurate in detecting limited and limited/marginal health literacy skills. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16881950?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2 .PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_R A&linkpos=3&log$=relatedarticles&dbfrom=pubmed According to this study, researchers were able to accurately predict which patients had low health literacy skills by asking one question. The results were just as accurate had they used REALM or TOFHLA. So maybe your survey only needs one question???? The idea of a survey for a large population seems like a lot of effort and expense, especially since NAAL already did that for you. We know the BIG factors that impact literacy, and they carry over into health literacy (race, language spoken, education level, employment status) and you should already have access to this information for your county. A survey won't measure those uncontrollable things that effect us all day to day. Who among us hasn't experienced a time when we didn't understand what someone was telling us (for any of the various reasons I already mentioned). If you give me the TOHFLA test I'd do really well. Or if I took the NAAL survey (http://nces.ed.gov/NAAL/sample_results.asp) right now I'd score in the proficient range. Under stress I wouldn't do as well. So, think about using the data already available to you. Create a demographic profile of your county population. List out the BIG factors. Estimate how many people might have low literacy. Use more of your time and energy for educating health care organizations and social services in your community about the need to communicate clearly. Consider the "universal design" concept. Everyone benefits from clear, simple communication. Doug Seubert Quality Improvement & Care Management Family Health Center/Community Heath Access Marshfield Clinic 1000 N Oak Avenue Marshfield, WI 54449 www.marshfieldclinic.org/quality (715) 387-5096 (1-800-782-8581 ext. 75096) seubert.douglas at marshfieldclinic.org ------Original Message------ From: "Matt Gayer" <mcggayer at sbcglobal.net> Date: Thu Jun 05, 2008 -- 09:12:38 PM To: healthliteracy at nifl.gov Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2053] Health Literacy Assessment Survey Hello All- I am health literacy intern this summer at a county health department in Missouri. My first goal is to assess the current health literacy rate of the county so we can identify strengths and weaknesses, then prepare an implementation plan tailored to best fit the community. In order to assess current health literacy, I proposed that a survey of some sort would probably be necessary in order to formulate our initial research. I have been able to thus far find any examples of such a survey/questionnaire, and was wondering if anyone had used/created one or knew from where I could find one. I very much appreciate any help with this as I prepare to begin the first steps in our new health literacy program. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Health and Literacy mailing list HealthLiteracy at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/healthliteracy Email delivered to seubert.douglas at marshfieldclinic.org -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 10668 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/healthliteracy/attachments/20080609/55bd9f96/a ttachment-0001.bin ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 14:00:03 -0400 From: MSkewes at ria.buffalo.edu Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2064] Re: New current awareness resource on healthliteracy resources To: The Health and Literacy Discussion List <healthliteracy at nifl.gov> Message-ID: <OF499CDBED.5CDDBCDA-ON85257460.0062D759-85257460.0062EF61 at ria.buffalo.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" I agree! This is fantastic! Thanks so much. Monica Monica C. Skewes, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Associate Research Institute on Addictions University at Buffalo The State University of New York 1021 Main Street Buffalo, New York 14203 716-887-2242 (phone) 716-887-2510 (fax) "Davies, Nicola" <NDavies at dthr.ab.ca> Sent by: healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov 06/06/2008 11:08 AM Please respond to The Health and Literacy Discussion List <healthliteracy at nifl.gov> To "The Health and Literacy Discussion List" <healthliteracy at nifl.gov> cc Subject [HealthLiteracy 2057] Re: New current awareness resource on healthliteracy resources Julie, What a wonderful resource! Excellent start to a Friday morning! Cheers Nicola -----Original Message----- From: healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Esparza, Julia M. Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 6:58 AM To: The Health and Literacy Discussion List Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2054] New current awareness resource on healthliteracy resources Friends, I would like to announce the recently created Health Literacy Alerts http://healthliteracyalerts.blogspot.com. This resource is to try to capture studies, reports and other information regarding health literacy in one place. This was created as a companion resource to my LSUHSC-S Medical Library Evidence Alert. You can use a feed reader to know when the site is updated or you can bookmark the page and return to it often. If I see resources mentioned online I will post those as well. It won?t be able to gather everything published but it will at least give us one way to try to stay on top of the literature. Most of the resources will NOT be available free since most are reports in journals. Your library will need to have access to the journal or you might have to ask to receive the resource via interlibrary loan. The focus will be on health literacy and not general literacy. I just wouldn?t have time to cover all the literature published in general literacy. If you see a resource please let me know and I can make an entry for it. Please let me know if you have any questions. Julie Julie Esparza Clinical Medical Librarian LSU Health Sciences Center - Shreveport, LA LSUHSC-S Medical Library Evidence Alert http://lsuhsc-sevidencealert.blogspot.com Health Literacy Alerts http://healthliteracyalerts.blogspot.com 318-675-4179 318-675-5442 Fax jespar at lsuhsc.edu ---------------------------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Health and Literacy mailing list HealthLiteracy at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/healthliteracy Email delivered to mskewes at ria.buffalo.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/healthliteracy/attachments/20080606/4134e856/a ttachment.html ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 15:53:20 -0400 From: "DeWalt, Darren" <darren_dewalt at med.unc.edu> Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2065] Universal Precautions Toolkit for Primary Care To: "The Health and Literacy Discussion List" <healthliteracy at nifl.gov> Message-ID: <ADBAFA5ADB37AE409553D3F7B2F8F9B30290B2AB at medexch.med.unc.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Dear Colleagues, We are developing a Health Literacy Universal Precautions toolkit for use in primary care practices. Therefore, we are looking for a broad range of tools that can be used by practices to help patients get the most out of their health care. This includes but is not limited to: 1. Staff training to improve cultural or literacy sensitivity and patient communication & education 2. Strategies for serving patients with low literacy or cultural differences 3. Strategies for practices to link with literacy or cultural resources provided in the community Please reply with any questions or if you have a tool that may be useful to include. If you have a tool, please let us know the name of the tool, how it is used, and what it costs. How to Reply: Email: vhawk at med.unc.edu or fax: 919 966-1739 ATTN: Victoria Hawk, HL Toolkit Mgr. When to Reply: by June 16, 2008. What to Include in Your Reply: In addition to information about tools, please include contact information: Name, Organization, Phone, Fax, Mailing Address and Email. We look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Darren Darren A. DeWalt, MD, MPH Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of General Internal Medicine 5039 Old Clinic Building, CB#7110 Chapel Hill, NC 27599 Campus Office: 919-966-2276, ext 245 Sheps Center Office: 919-966-0926 fax: 919-966-2274 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/healthliteracy/attachments/20080609/de3e5616/a ttachment.html ------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Health and Literacy mailing list HealthLiteracy at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/healthliteracy End of HealthLiteracy Digest, Vol 33, Issue 5 *********************************************
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