Research by Subject: Nursing 219: Health Literacy

Health Literacy and Readability of Health materials

It is recommended that most patient teaching materials are at a 6th grade level. Remember, you are writing to be understood. The following materials can help you make sure your group project is readable.

Creating Easy to Read Handouts

Assessing and Developing Health Materials
A succinct guide from the Harvard School of Public Health outling the steps to assessing and developing health materials for patients.
Health Literacy Online: A Guide to Writing and Designing Easy-to-Use Web Sites
Contains a step-by-step guide to writing easy-to-read health web sites.

Health Literacy Toolkits

AHRQ CAHPS Item Set for Addressing Health Literacy

The CAHPS Item Set for Addressing Health Literacy's goal is to measure, from the patients' perspective, how well health information is communicated to them by health care professionals.

Health Literacy Measurement Tools

Contains the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (short form) in both English and Spanish.

Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit

This toolkit offered by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality offers primary care practices ways to assess their services for literacy consideration, raise staff awareness, and address specific areas.

Readability Formulas

The site provides a free readability calculator. Users just need to copy a sample of the document and paste it into the "Text Sample Box." The site will calculate the Flesch Reading Ease, Fog Scale Level, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of the text.

Websites

Clear Communication: An NIH Health Literacy Initiative
The site provides information on topics such as: clear communication, health literacy, plain language, and cultural competency.
Harvard School of Public Health: Health Literacy Studies
Users of the site can find research articles, policy, reports, initiatives, strategies, and tools regarding health literacy.
Health Literacy Special Collection
In addition to information about health literacy, the site includes multilingual health information, adult literacy resources, cultural competency information, and information about plain language.
Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit
The toolkit provides a comprehensive overview of health literacy. Also provided are sample easy to read forms and letters for providers to use in their practice.
Health.gov
Provides professional and consumer information about health communication, health literacy, and e-health.
HealthyPeople.gov
Provides ten-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. Included are health literacy objectives.
National Health Initiative to Improve Health Literacy
The purpose of the action plan is to engage organizations, professionals, and individuals in an effort to improve health literacy.
National Network of Libraries of Medicine: Health Literacy
The NLM Health Literacy page contains a variety of topics such as health literacy skills, research findings, economic impact, role of the librarian, organizations, programs, bibliographies, and other resources.
Plain Language.gov
Contains guidelines for writing in plain language and contains a section about health literacy.