Part 1 'the basics' - World Health Communication Associates

health literacy skills. One study applied an assessment tool to a pharmacy setting.
It evaluated patient understanding of medications and adherence to prescribed
regimens (Jacobson 2008). Additionally, the assessment tools:
• Raise pharmacy staff awareness of health literacy issues.
• Detect barriers that may prevent people with limited literacy skills from
accessing, comprehending and using health information and services provided
by the organisation.
• Identify opportunities for improvement.
Conducting an organisational assessment may also provide a baseline
assessment prior to implementing an intervention. Jacobson identified nine
key elements of an organisational health literacy intervention: management,
measurement, workforce, care process, physical environment, technology, paperwork
and written communications, culture and alignment. Evaluating these elements
provides a comprehensive audit to assess congruence between patient, provider
and organisational perspectives of health literacy. A follow-up assessment allows
evaluation of the intervention’s impact on an organisation’s accessibility to those with
limited health literacy.
3.3 scorecards
Some have proposed the development of health literacy scorecards for individual and
system monitoring of literacy. The individual scorecard would identify a few key health
indicators that are associated with a healthy physical and mental state. Individuals
could rate themselves against a standard and agencies would be measured on how
many of their users successfully achieved the score parameters. The challenge here
will be to ensure that the variables selected truly reflect the health literacy status of
individuals and agencies.
3.4 a measure of health develoPment
It has been suggested that population health literacy should be considered a measure
of health development. A population health literacy index which measures the
alignment between people’s skills and the health literacy friendliness of key systems
and settings in which they need to function could provide a useful and unique picture
of population health competence. Such an index could provide a new type of health
index for societies that complements measures such as the disability adjusted life
years (DALys) and morbidity and mortality data (Ratzan 2000; Kickbusch 2003).
Section 3: How iS HealtH literacy meaSured? 19