SYDNEY MEDICAL SCHOOL HEALTH LITERACY: A RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE Kirsten McCaffery Associate Professor School of Public Health

BACKGROUND What we know  Health Literacy is the result of the interaction between the individual and health system  Low health literacy is common in Australia and other developed nations  Associated with poor health outcomes (Berkman et al 2011)

BACKGROUND What we don’t know  Debate about how to measure health literacy  How best to improve health literacy or services to improve outcomes for a patients with low HL  Some interventions have shown some success but much more research is needed (Sheridan et al 2011). Successes in:  Presentation of information (eg. plain language)  Risk communication formats  Medicine labels  Teach back

BACKGROUND Research perspective: what we want to achieve  Work with health care providers, consumers and patients to improve HL in areas it is most needed  Feasible and sustainable interventions which can make a difference  Need to research and document the impact of interventions to add to the body of knowledge about HL  Multidisciplinary approach needed

CPC/WUN HL RESEARCH NETWORK  Almost 200 members worldwide  Over 10 collaborative research projects  Website and members forum

NETWORK DISCIPLINES Psychology Pharmacy Health Policy Adult Education ATSI Health Primary Care Public Health Media / Communications Business Nursing Primary Care Clinical Specialists Health Consumers Allied Health Health Policy

GOAL / VISION  To conduct high quality, collaborative, cross-disciplinary HL research.  To connect researchers with health practitioners and policy makers interested in HL to develop and evaluate sustainable solutions.  Raise awareness of the problem of HL among the public, health professionals and policy makers.

CPC HEALTH LITERACY NODE Five Priority Research Areas: 1.Health literacy conceptual and measurement issues 2.Health literacy in an age of digital communication 3.Health literacy and health inequalities including CALD groups 4.Health literacy intervention development a)Integrating health literacy into health professional training b)Intervention development for consumers 5.Participatory approaches to health literacy research

HEALTH LITERACY PRIORITIES Issues for Australia: 1.How does Health Literacy fit with Shared Decision Making and moves to implement the latter? 2.How can we better connect health care professionals in the field with HL researchers? 3.Where are there opportunities to work with the Education sector? 4.Need a collaborative, national approach

SYDNEY MEDICAL SCHOOL THANK YOU Kirsten McCaffery Associate Professor School of Public Health

CPC HEALTH LITERACY NODE Five Priority Areas: 1.Health literacy conceptual and measurement issues - How can we clarify the HL construct? - How can we best measure HL in individuals and organisations?

CPC HEALTH LITERACY NODE Five Priority Areas: 2.Health literacy in an age of digital communication -How can we use digital technology to mitigate the impact of low HL?

CPC HEALTH LITERACY NODE Five Priority Areas: 3.Health literacy and health inequalities including CALD (ethnic minority) groups -How are low health literacy and health inequalities related? -Can we reduce health inequalities by addressing health literacy? -How do we address health literacy in CALD groups?

CPC HEALTH LITERACY NODE Five Priority Areas: 4.Integrating health literacy into health professional training -What do health professionals know about health literacy? -How do we train health professionals to communicate better to patients with low health literacy? -How do we get organisations to better address the needs of low health literacy patients?

CPC HEALTH LITERACY NODE Five Priority Areas: 5.Participatory approaches to health literacy research - How can we use participatory and action research methods to understand health literacy and reduce its impact on poor health?

HL Node Project (>10 projects)Lead 1.International survey of health professionals (NZ, Aus, UK, US) Prof Robyn Dixon (Auckland) 2.Chronic Kidney Disease (Aus, US) a) Cognition, HL and CKD b) HL review of patient materials c) Development of a HL patient App A/Prof Angela Webster (Sydney) 3.Maternal Health Literacy (US, Aus, UK)Dr Sandra Wilson (George Washington) 4.Informed decision making in pre-natal testing (Aus, Netherlands) Dr Sian Smith (UNSW) 5.Evaluation of a HL education program for social disadvantaged adults attending TAFE a) RCT in TAFE NSW (n=300) b) Potential to expand to US and UK A/Prof Kirsten McCaffery (Sydney) 6.Adaptation of Bone Marrow Transplant materials for patients with low literacy. NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation A/Prof Kirsten McCaffery (Sydney) 7.Grants submitted: HL elements submitted to NHMRC & ARC re: CALD and Primary Care EBM/SDM Translation. Prof Phyllis Butow Prof Paul Glasziou 16

CPC HL Research Network Join HL Research Network: