National Assessment of Adult Health Literacy, Understanding the Results and Implications

Andres Muro1115 N. Oregon, El Paso, TX 79902

(915) 831 4161 andresmuro@aol.com

What is literacy?

Social, cultural and communication practices in a community that allow members to fully participate on all aspects of family, education, vocation and community life. In our community it usually refers to

the use of print and other non-verbal clues

NAAL 2003

What is literacy?

Literacy does not immediately transfer from context to context

Being literate in one context does not make us literate in another

Examples of contexts

Buying groceries Cooking a meal Operating a electronic cash register

at a grocery store Getting an airplane ticket form the

automatic ticket dispenser Buying a metro subway card Navigating the health care system

How de we get information?

Oral society Literate society

What is health literacy?

The capacity of individuals in community to obtain, process and understand, health related information to make informed health decisions (HHS definition) Healthy lifestyles/prevention Access Understand/follow directions

NAAL results

http://nces.ed.gov/NAAL/index.asp?file=AssessmentOf/HealthLiteracy.asp&PageId=12

Health NAAL overall results

Naal results by gender

Naal results by age

NAAL results by ethnicity

Percentage of Whites in each literacy level

Percentage of Blacks in each literacy level

Percentage of Hispanics each literacy level

Below basic: 9%Basic: 19%Intermediate: 58%Proficient: 14%

Below basic: 24%Basic: 34%Intermediate: 41%

Proficient: 2%

Below basic: 41%Basic: 25%Intermediate: 31%

Proficient: 4%

Literacy and health

While we are still an oral society, the medical/health system expects us to be hyper-literate.

What can we do? increase the health literacy of the

general population Make the medical/health care system

aware of our limitations and provide interventions to address them.

Re-defining health literacy

The capacity of individuals in a multicultural and multilingual community to obtain, process and understand, health related information to make informed health decisions (HHS definition); and the ability of health workers to create and share health information so that community members can make informed health decisions.

Interventions by health entities

Creating more accessible print materials Creating videos, illustrated brochures,

internet accessible information, etc to increase comprehension

Train health professionals to understand cultural and literacy barriers

Train health professionals on how to interact with people and how to elicit information and understanding Effectiveness of interventions by themselves is

ambiguous. Must be combined

Interventions by health entities

Oracy: ability to use verbal information

Always elicit feedback to assess comprehension

Health literacy and education

Systematically incorporate health instruction in: K-12 College Adult education

How do we teach literacy?

Academic vs. Information Use health related information to teach

reading, writing and math