Functional Health Literacy Training for Seniors Michele Day, LCSW, PhD 1, Susan Dollar, LCSW, PhD, Carmen Boyd, MS LPC RD/LD 2, Jan Atwell, MSN RN 3, Carrie Lines, MPH 1 School of Social Work, Missouri State University Introduction and Literature Review ▪ The healthcare environment is changing ▪ Among people 60+, 66% have low Health Literacy (HL) (Williams, MV. JAMA, December 6, 1995) ▪ Rural seniors are at increased risk of having low HL and related poor health outcomes ▪ Recruiting students to serve rural seniors has been challenging ▪ Extensive collaboration with rural senior centers/equipment provision RESEARCH AIM: This project proposed and tested a new model for HL training utilizing an interdisciplinary team of providers and students Model-Functional Health Literacy Training for Seniors An aim of the project was full partnership with community and attention to the sustainability of the project after end of grant funding Interdisciplinary team (Dietetics, Nursing, Social Work and others) created the workshops on HL building on health topics that had been identified by centers. It was necessary to modify available materials (although it targeted seniors) to meet needs of older (80+), rural, computer-shy participants MedlinePLUS provided basis for consistent education and the focus of workshops. Equipment donated to the senior centers for continuing use in health information seeking was installed with Medline as home page. ASK ME THREE public education campaign was a component of efforts to increase senior’s confidence in communicating with health providers Workshops educated mid-sized groups of seniors in varied formats: lecture, skill building, small groups Health profession students were an intricate part of the education and the research as they mixed among the seniors for hand to hand teaching and assistance with surveys research Finding for Seniors in Year 2 (n = 74) What is Medline Plus? t(73) = , p <.001 ** What are 3 questions? t(73) = p <.001 ** Senior Confidence speaking to provider? t(73) = p <.483 (  ) How likely use a computer to look up health information? t (73) = p <.001 ** Is there a computer at the senior center for health? t(73) = p <.001 ** Health skill competencies increased Selected skill measures: taking BP, choosing which foods are low potassium, recognizing caregiver stress  Note: Y1 saw increase * significant at p <.05 ** significant at p <.01 Finding for Students in Year 2 (n = 42) Did have direct experience with senior in projectYes 83% Did have positive experience with seniors in projectYes 89% Came to the project already interested in seniorsYes 67% Recognize biases regarding rural older adults?t(41) = p <.001 ** Ability to respect and promote older adults' right to dignity and self- determination? t(41) = p <.001 ** Respect diversity among older adults, families, and professionalst(41) = p <.001 ** Understand interdisciplinary practicet(40) = p <.001 ** Ability to adapt interviewing methods t(41) = p <.001 ** Ability to use empathy t(41) = p <.001 ** * significant at p <.05 ** significant at p <.01 For more information contact: (1) School of Social Work, Missouri State University (2) BMS Dietetics Program, Missouri State University (3) School of Nursing, Missouri State University Discussion Participants Seniors gained increased confidence in talking to health provider in year one Seniors gained skills and interest in computer use in year two Initiated a face-to-face senior follow-up in year two Students had good experience, but the initiative may not be the vehicle to recruit new students to Gerontology Promising model for community collaboration Sample 5 rural senior centers 74 seniors participated in research component 46 MSU students completed attitude/competency Instruments Survey Pre/post tests Seniors Basic HL questions Competencies Short Test of Functional Health Literacy (S-TOFHL) Students Gero-Competencies Protocol Seniors pretest in front pocket of material Students collected pretests Students returned to their senior to assist with post-test Students completed pretest online and viewed an online training video. They post-tested at the workshop end Analysis Paired t-tests Seniors 80% were over the age of 65, and 25% were over the age of % were regular attendees at the senior centers. Caucasian 99% 47% said they were married and 53% were not married (single/divorced/widowed) Women were more prevalent than men (70%, 29%) 40% had high school or GED and 54% reported college experience. Students Social Work 10.9%, Nursing 58.7%, Audiology 10.9%. Sports Medicine 10.9%; Psy/Gerontology 2.2%, MPH 2.2%, Psychology SBU 2.2% Direct experience with older adults in this program? 82.6% A + program experience 89.1% Interest prior 67.4% References Research Methods