Functional literacy and older adults

Health Literacy and Older Adults

2009-02-19T19:38:44Z

Over 77 million adults in the USA have basic or below basic health literacy skills.

For the growing population of older Americans aged 65 years or older, difficulties with health literacy can complicate already challenging health problems.

The US Dept of Health and Human Services put together a Quick Guide to Health Literacy and Older Adults for people who serve older adults on health and aging issues.

The guide provides background information on health literacy and strategies and suggestions for communicating with older adults.

While the information is commonsensical (e.g., design Web sites that are senior friendly), it also reminds us of best practices for serving older adults. I think it can also be used as a way to show/justify some of the specialized work that we do.

Areas of focus include visual and hearing impairments and cognitive challenges.

RE: Health Literacy and Older Adults citation

2009-01-14T19:43:29Z

Hi Douglas!

That's an issue we'll be facing forever.

One problem here is that "overly-educated" types such as we are the ones designing a system (the world wide web, browsers, etc.) meant to be universal ... but we've no experience with what the world is like for the majority of "real people" trying to cope with their individual issues.

Health Literacy and Older Adults citation

2009-01-07T13:37:07Z

An October, 2008 US News & World Report story ] supports this; “Many patients misunderstand the written questions American doctors have them answer before physical exams, a finding that calls into question the usefulness of these screening tools.”

Snippet: “…of 300 men at an inner-city hospital -- average age 61 and average reading level of fourth grade -- only one in six understood all seven questions used…[and]…In all, only 38 percent of patients understood more than half the questions…”

RE: Board books / sound books and older adults

2008-08-05T20:06:34Z

Sounds like a great idea ... but I haven't heard of any.

(Yes, it's turned on. Bit hard to navigate, though, IMHO. )

Board books / sound books and older adults

2008-08-05T16:59:21Z

I received a question from a librarian, have no answer, and thought I’d pick the collective brain.

She “had a woman ask if I have heard of books for adults that are like the children's books with sounds. She said her mother, who had a stroke, was given a book on birds that had all the information on birds, but then on the side had this sort of digital sidebar where you could press a button to hear the sound of birdcalls.

She asked if there were any other books like that. I've never seen one.”

In the meantime, the librarian “gave her a playway for her mother to try, so hopefully this 89 year old woman will be up to speed technologically.”

I’ve looked, and though I bet that the book was Donald Kroodsma's The Backyard Birdsong Guide, Chronicle Books 2008, I have no ideas on the larger question – are there other kinds of books like this? I may not be a good enough searcher any more, especially because I can’t think of a use except for brief snippets of sounds.

There's no special cataloging tags that I found anywhere in any MARC records, and it reminds me of children's books where you beep the horn button for the car horn like this one.

I’ve never thought about this kind of thing for older adults, stroke victims, the differently-abled, etc.

Ideas? Please? Uhh..Is this thing turned on?

Quick Guide to Health Literacy and Older Adults

2008-07-07T17:37:16Z

Older adults have documented health literacy problems. The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy included the first-ever national assessment of health literacy, which found that adults age 65 and older have lower health literacy scores than all other age groups surveyed. Only 3 percent of the older adults who were surveyed were measured as proficient.

The [url http://www.health.gov/communication/literacy/olderadults/literacy.htm#p1 ]Health Literacy and Older[/url] page provides background information on health literacy, strategies and suggestions for communicating with older adults, and covers visual and hearing impairments and cognitive challenges.

Links to many helpful resource materials are included for you to investigate specific topics in greater detail. This guide builds on the information presented in the Quick Guide to Health Literacy, published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Re: Functional literacy and older adults

2008-03-26T18:53:26Z

Hi Emily,

I totally forgot about Spanish/ELL/ ESL resources as part of this subset. Doh! And I call myself a librarian. The shame.

There is definitely an interesting overlap of resources for patrons, it reminds me of the overlap between older adults and persons with disabilities; not that one equates to the other, but many resources are shared between the two groups (e.g., magnifiers that ease reading, simple adaptive technology that eases gripping or grabbing, there are endless examples).

Has anyone else out in libraryland had success with this overlapping service? Is there any competition or downside? I guess it's another leverage point for us, part of what makes libraries the ultimate great place.

Doug

Re: Functional literacy and older adults

2008-03-25T16:02:47Z

There has been some discussion of this topic under Services for Spanish Speakers as to how libraries can play a role in providing health information to non-English speakers. It could be there is something useful in these resources for older adults.

Health Information for Spanish Speakers
http://www.webjunction.org/do/Navigation?category=15334

Two webinars focus on this topic:
Strategies for the Health Reference Interview for Spanish Speakers
http://www.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=19902

Finding and Evaluating Online Health Information for Spanish Speakers
http://www.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=17666

The National Library of Medicine has some resources, including funding, for developing health literacy programs.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/grants.html

Re: Functional literacy and older adults

2008-03-25T15:47:01Z

I was thinking more along the lines of receiving funding for raising the health literacy levels (through 'regular' literacy or information literacy) for our communities.

If this issue is of such concern to providers of caregiving for the elderly, health care companies, and big health care firms, surely we librarians can translate that concern (e.g., money) into programming and helpful materials? Perhaps even longer or extended open hours in order to 'achieve this important mission'?

Maybe the [url www.lff.org ]Libraries for the Future[/url] folks and those at [url www.ea.webjunction.org ] Equal Access[/url] have a little something to contribute here?

Re: Functional literacy and older adults

2008-03-25T14:23:52Z

I confess I'm not at all sure what "health literacy" might mean ... I'm assuming it's not a subset of simple "literacy" (which one would need to read health/medical text). If it is a subset, it merely seems to be a silly term.

But I say the same thing about "information literacy."

That said ... I think *a lot* of libraries are getting the non-literate coming into them through the availability of DVDs and other video formats. That's an important first step. Once they find we're not threatening they might very well decide that they want to read.

It's their decision, though.

Functional literacy and older adults

2008-03-19T14:16:46Z

What can libraries do to help those with low health literacy? Is anyone out there specifically targeting health literacy? What efforts are y'all making with older adult literacy?

At a recent conference, I learned that:

* Nearly one half of adult Americans have limited functional literacy skills

* Ninety million adults lack the literacy skills to enable them to effectively use the U.S. health care system

The presenter (citing Cutilli, C., 2005 Health literacy: What you need to know. Orthopedic Nursing, 24(3), 227-233) then perhaps obviously mentioned the groups that tend toward lower literacy levels: the elderly (65 years+), those with less than H.S. education, the poor, those with physical and mental health issues, ethnic minorities, and recent LEP immigrants.

Resource to note: http://www.samhsa.gov/OlderAdultsTAC/ and their publication http://www.samhsa.gov/OlderAdultsTAC/docs/ASANCOA%2007%20DisasterFINAL.pdf