Transcript Health Literacy Month Workshop Power Point Slides

HEALTH LITERACY
MONTH WORKSHOP
Tools to help find and use health information
Evaluating your Health Literacy Needs
Health literacy can come in many forms, to learn the ways you
may be affected by health literacy type the link below into your
internet browser
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HealthLiteracyMonth
Some Statistics
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Almost 45% of the United States population (or 93 million
Americans) have only basic or below basic literacy skills
7.8 million seniors can only perform the most simple and
concrete literacy skills
Effects of low health literacy cost $50 - $73 billion in
additional health expenditures annually
Literacy Rate by age:
http://www.npsf.org/pchc/health-literacy.php
Types of Health Literacy
Finding Health Information
 Searching the Internet
 Communicating with Health Professionals
 Asking Questions
Understanding Health Information
 Alleviating confusion during doctor visits
 Learning about conditions, tests, and procedures
Implementing Health Information
 Experiencing trouble when filling out forms
 Difficulty taking medications
 Difficulty sticking to a prescribed treatment plan
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Finding Health Information
The tool most of us will default to first is the internet. When using the
internet to search for health information remember these tips.
Look for the sponsor of the site
 Determine the currency of the site
 Examine the factual information available
 Understand the audience the information is written for
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http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/webeval/webeval_start.html
Helpful Hint: If you start with a website you already trust, you will face
less conflicting information and frustration. See the “Top 10 Consumer
Websites” handout for some widely used sites.
Understanding Health Information
Tools for communicating with your doctor:
The Teach Back Method
 Plain Language Communication
 Patient Advocacy
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http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/medicalwords.html
Implementing Health Information
Problems with implementing health information often starts
from lack of understanding or lack of information
 Question Lists
 http://www.ahrq.gov/questionsaretheanswer/question
Builder.aspx
 Patient Advocacy
 Your Health Record
 Google Health
Questions and Wrap-Up
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Let’s re-evaluate!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HealthLiteracyMonthPostTest