HJAR Jul/Aug 2021

HEALTH LITERACY Q&A 16 JUL / AUG 2021 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS   Thank you for taking time to discuss health literacy and how healthcare professionals can communicate better with patients and their caretakers. We would like to start with your definition of health literacy. The definition is important, as it helps ensure we are on the same page about what health literacy is and is not. Often, when people hear the term, they think of general literacy, or more specifically about someone’s ability to read. While this is an important skill that certainly impacts health literacy, it is only part of the skill set encom- passed by the term. Of note, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services updated its definition of health literacy with the launch of Healthy People 2030 (this effort establishes national health goals for each 10-year period) toward its overarching goal to “eliminate health dis- parities, achieve health equity, and attain health literacy to improve the health and well-being of all.” Healthy People 2030 offers these definitions: • “Personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.” This definition goes beyond someone’s ability to read. In order to find health information, you need to know where to look and how to evaluate informa- tion to determine whether it is authori- tative. To understand that information and use it requires skills such as read- ing, performing quantitative calcula- tions and deriving meaning from sta- tistics, interpreting with accuracy what is being asked on forms and surveys, engaging in verbal communication by listening and speaking succinctly and descriptively, and accessing and interacting with digital communication platforms such as patient portals and video conferencing software. • “Organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related deci- sions and actions for themselves and others.” This newly added definition under- scores the role healthcare and public health professionals play in address- ing health literacy at the organizational level. Organizations can address health literacy by addressing the gap between the health information they commu- nicate and learners’ ability to access, understand and use it. They can work to help patients and the public improve their health literacy skills (e.g., teach them how to use a patient portal), and they can work to reduce the commu- nication demands placed on patients (e.g., make sure all written informa- tion is in “plain language”). All of these efforts can support advancements in patient safety and other quality met- rics, enhance the patient experience and help reduce healthcare costs. Alison Caballero, MPH, CHES Director, UAMS Center for Health Literacy Alison Caballero, MPH, CHES, is director of the UAMS Center for Health Literacy. In this role, she collaborates with UAMS leaders in education, research and clinical care to advance the center’s mission to improve health by making health information easy to understand. Alison’s background includes workforce development, public health education and research, patient education, medical administration and major gifts fundraising. She completed a prevention fellowship with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Alison holds an undergraduate degree in health education from the University of Central Arkansas and a master’s degree in public health from UAMS. She is a certified health education specialist (CHES).