College of Population Health, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Health Care Improvement Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Am J Prev Med. 2017 Sep;53(3S1):S73-S77. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2017.03.016.
Health literacy, the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand health information and services needed to make health decisions, is an essential element for early adults (aged 18-44 years) to make informed decisions about cancer. Low health literacy is one of the social determinants of health associated with cancer-related disparities. Over the past several years, a nonprofit organization, a university, and a cancer center in a major urban environment have developed and implemented health literacy programs within healthcare systems and in the community. Health system personnel received extensive health literacy training to reduce medical jargon and improve their patient education using plain language easy-to-understand written materials and teach-back, and also designed plain language written materials including visuals to provide more culturally and linguistically appropriate health education and enhance web-based information. Several sustainable health system policy changes occurred over time. At the community level, organizational assessments and peer leader training on health literacy have occurred to reduce communication barriers between consumers and providers. Some of these programs have been cancer specific, including consumer education in such areas as cervical cancer, skin cancer, and breast cancer that are targeted to early adults across the cancer spectrum from prevention to treatment to survivorship. An example of consumer-driven health education that was tested for health literacy using a comic book-style photonovel on breast cancer with an intergenerational family approach for Chinese Americans is provided. Key lessons learned from the health literacy initiatives and overall conclusions of the health literacy initiatives are also summarized.
健康素养是指个体获取、处理和理解健康信息和服务以做出健康决策的能力程度，对于 18-44 岁的年轻人做出有关癌症的知情决策至关重要。低健康素养是与癌症相关差异相关的社会决定因素之一。在过去几年中，一个非营利组织、一所大学和一个大城市环境中的癌症中心在医疗保健系统和社区内开发并实施了健康素养计划。医疗系统人员接受了广泛的健康素养培训，以减少医学术语，并使用通俗易懂的书面材料和回授法改进他们的患者教育，还设计了通俗易懂的书面材料，包括视觉效果，以提供更具文化和语言适应性的健康教育，并增强基于网络的信息。随着时间的推移，一些可持续的医疗系统政策发生了变化。在社区层面，进行了组织评估和健康素养同行领导培训，以减少消费者和提供者之间的沟通障碍。其中一些计划是针对癌症的，包括针对癌症各个方面的消费者教育，如宫颈癌、皮肤癌和乳腺癌，旨在预防、治疗和生存各个阶段针对年轻人。提供了一个使用乳腺癌漫画式光子小说进行消费者驱动的健康教育的示例，该小说采用了跨代家庭方法，针对华裔美国人。还总结了健康素养计划的经验教训和总体结论。
