Sabrina,

I'm not certain this will be helpful, but I just did a search and ended up at a Web site put together by the Harvard School of Public Health - http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/healthliteracy/lit_2000.html .  There are annotations of articles published in 2000 - a bit more recent than 1989.  

Best,
Pamela




>>> "Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi" <sabrina_kurtz-rossi at comcast.net> 9/10/2007 10:56 PM >>>

Here is a straight forward question for all of you.  I have a classic
(meaning old) article entitle "Literacy and Health Status in Developing
Countries" by R.N. Grosse and C. Auffrey. Annu. Rev. Public Health. 1989.
10:281-97.  Are any of you familiar with it?  It is an excellent review of
the literature describing numerous international studies showing a direct
relationship between increased literacy and improved health.  I have been
looking for a more recent review of the literature on the topic but have not
been able to find one.  Do any of you have a citation to recommend?  Thanks.


Sabrina

-------------------- 
Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi, M.Ed., Coordinator 
Health Information Literacy Research Project 
Medical Library Association
781-835-6488 phone; 781-391-4409 fax;
sabrina_kurtz-rossi at comcast.net 


-----Original Message-----
From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] 
On Behalf Of tsticht at znet.com 
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 5:56 PM
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov 
Subject: [SpecialTopics 583] What International Literacy Programs
OfferPrograms in the U.S.

Colleagues: I am enjoying reading the comments on this special topic about
What International Literacy Programs Offer Programs in the U.S. A couple of
the lessons I have learned come from reading close to a thousand
applications for UNESCO literacy prizes in 25 years of work on UNESCO's
international jury that selects the annual prize winners. Some of you have
discussed one or more of these lessons learned. The two lessons are (1)
there are generally multipler effects from literacy programs, and (2)
there are often intergenerational effects from literacy programs (actually,
this is a sub-set of the multiplier effects). Though not all effects are
always found in all programs, there are usually more than one effect from
literacy programs in addition to the improvement of adult literacy
abilities. These multiplier effects have implications for advocacy for
adult literacy education. Here is a little expansion of these two lessons:

 (1) Multiplier effects: Governments can expect multiple returns on
investments in adult literacy education in at least five areas:

1. Improved productivity at work, at home,  and in the community leading to
higher tax bases for communities, decreased violence at home and in the
community, and greater participation in citizenship activities by a larger
segment of the adult population.

2. Improved self confidence and other psychological and physiological
aspects of health of adults, including activities that will help the brain
grow throughout adulthood and contribute to reduced medical costs for
adults as they age.

3.  Improved health of adult's children due to learning in adult education
programs leading to  better prenatal and postnatal care, reductions in low
birth rate infants, and better home medical care, thereby contributing to
lowered medical costs for children and fewer learning problems in school.

4. Improved social justice from providing literacy education for
marginalized populations to permit them to  acquire skills and knowledge
needed to take political action that allows them to achieve their civil
rights and to overcome social exclusion  and join in the mainstream of
society.

5. Improved  productivity in the schools by providing adults with the
knowledge they need to better prepare their children to enter school, help
them achieve in school, encourage them to stay in school and increase their
opportunities to  enroll in higher education.

 (2) Adult literacy programs often have intergenerational consequences, 
meaning that, as suggested in item 5 above,  improving adult literacy,
especially that of women, increases the likelihood  of children's
participation, persistence, and achievement in education.

This intergenerational effect of adult literacy education has been expressed
as educational policy by Rosa Maria Torres, a member of the UNESCO
International Jury for Literacy Prizes in 2001-2002. She says, :"Adult
Basic Education and Learning (ABLE) cannot continue to be viewed in
isolation, as a separate educational goal . but rather as part of the
overall education, training and learning system and policy at national and
international level. .To educate children, it is essential to educate
adults, not only (illiterate, poor) parents and caregivers (including
teachers) but adults in general. Because it is adults and the adult society
who make the critical decisions that affect children's well-being and
development, at home, at school.... This is the importance of educating
adults, for their own sake and for the sake of children, for the present
and for future generations. .In fact, . the children's right to education
should  include the right to educated parents."

 These two major lessons from international programs, i.e., multiplier
effects and intergenerational effects provide a basis for advocating for
greater investments in adult literacy education. In the U. S., I have
referred to these multiple outcomes as providing "double duty dollars,"
meaning that when we spend a dollar on adult literacy education, we may get
not just a dollar of return in terms of improved literacy by the adult, but
we may also get many additional dollars of benefits in terms of health,
education of children, and so forth. In the U.K., in advising the 1998
Moser group, whose work lead to the present Skills for Life Strategy, I
called this getting "more power for the pound!"


Tom Sticht


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