Health Literacy

This training:

• Provides strategies for considering literacy when creating public health messages for the general public.
• Provides strategies for considering literacy in direct public health services to the public.

This training, second in a series, contains two sections and provides practical techniques for addressing literacy issues in spoken and written communications. Be sure to sure to complete Health Literacy & Public Health: Introduction as a good primer.

Intended Audience:

General

Learning Objectives:

After completing the course, the learner will be able to:

• List seven barriers to good communication in public health.
• Provide an example for each barrier.
• List seven techniques to improve health communication.
• Define plain language.
• Describe three communication strategies you can apply in your daily work.

Pre-requisites/Learning Level:

No Pre-requisites

Competencies addressed:

CEUs Offered:

CNE Credits offered until February 28, 2022. CHES, CME, and CPH credits offered until March 31, 2024.

Cost:

Free

Modality/format:

Online Self-Pace

Length:

1 hour

Presenter(s) and/or Content Experts:

Technical requirements:

• Adobe Acrobat Reader 
• Speakers

Registration requirements:

Register a free account

Creation and/or update: March 30, 2021

This training:

• Introduces the concept of health literacy.
• Dispels common assumptions about people with low literacy.
• Presents the consequences of low health literacy.
• Describes public health activities with a health literacy perspective.

This training is the first of two that address health literacy and public health. After completing this training, it is recommended that you enroll in Health Literacy & Public Health: Strategies for Addressing Low Health Literacy.

This training contains four sections. The content and activities demonstrate how the public’s literacy skills affect interactions with medical and public health staff.

Intended Audience:

General

Learning Objectives:

After completing the course, the learner will be able to:

• Define fundamental literacy.
• Define health literacy.
• Describe how health literacy relates to public health.
• List the four domains of health literacy.
• Give an example of each of the four domains of health literacy.
• List some coping strategies people use to compensate for their low literacy skills.
• List some groups that are more likely to be less literate.
• List some reasons why people may have low literacy.
• List the consequences of low health literacy for individuals.
• Describe why people, regardless of literacy skills, may fail to understand health information.
• Give examples of how low literacy affects the essential services of public health.

Pre-requisites/Learning Level:

No Pre-requisites

Competencies addressed:

CEUs Offered:

CNE Credits offered until February 28, 2022. CHES, CME, and CPH credits offered until March 31, 2024

Cost:

Free

Modality/format:

Online Self-Pace

Length:

1 hour

Presenter(s) and/or Content Experts:

Technical requirements:

• Adobe Acrobat Reader 
• Speakers

Registration requirements:

Register a free account

Creation and/or update: March 30, 2021

Course Description & Objective: According to the American Medical Association, Low health literacy is a stronger predictor of a person’s health than age, income, employment status, education level, or race. (Source: AMA) Reach more people and improve health outcomes by making sure your communication is health literacy friendly. In this session, you’ll learn why health literacy matters, how to easily determine and improve the “grade level” of your written documents, and strategies for making sure your communication is culturally appropriate. Target Audience: State employees or anyone who writes documents for the department. Instructor: Don McCormick, IDPH Public Information Officer