Highlights From the 2003 Maryland State Assessment of Adult Literacy

Baer, Justin; Hsu, Yung-chen

doi:10.1037/e540152012-001

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“…Population surveys have been one common method of characterizing health literacy in communities or groups defined, for example, by race/ethnicity or geography. Six states participated in the 2003 NAAL to acquire state-based data on adult literacy, and 15 states in addition to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico used the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System health literacy questions (Baer & Hsu, 2004; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). These data describe people's skills aggregated at the state level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community Health Literacy Assessment: A Systematic Framework to Assess Activities, Gaps, Assets, and Opportunities for Health Literacy Improvement

Platter¹,

Kaplow²,

Baur³

2019

HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice

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Background:The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy makes the case that a wide range of organizations and professionals must work together to improve health information and services to achieve a health literate society. The context and framework for this collaboration and action, however, have yet to be well-articulated. We report on our use of a community health needs assessment model to describe county and state health literacy activities, gaps, assets, and opportunities. This approach combines the public health best practice of learning about communities through systematic assessments and the emerging health literacy best practice of studying organizational behaviors.Brief description of activity:A community health literacy assessment was implemented from January 2018 to April 2018. The purpose was to collect information about county and state-level health literacy activities, gaps, assets, and opportunities. We used this information to characterize the status of health literacy in Maryland and establish an initial baseline for county and state strategic planning work and future collaboration.Implementation:An environmental scan of each county in Maryland identified health indicators, community resources, and health organizations or professionals. Organizational representatives participated in interviews about their health literacy work. Interviews were analyzed to identify themes as well as summarize and quantify perspectives by county. We convened a forum, disseminated preliminary findings, and performed member checking to assess agreement with the results.Results:The team interviewed 56 individuals from 49 organizations. Themes of health literacy definitions as well as organizational ranking on the use of health literacy best practices are discussed in this article. Forty public health professionals, including 10 interview participants, attended the forum. Member checking assessed interview participants' agreement with results and interpretations, which were found to be accurate portrayals of their responses.Lessons learned:Lessons learned include being flexible with the interview approach, performing member checking, and allowing participants to self-define health literacy. Our experience shows a small team can perform a large-scale assessment that provides actionable information at state and county-levels. The results can influence future interventions, inform strategic planning and collaboration, and lead us toward a health literate society. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2019;3(4):e216–e226.]Plain Language Summary:A systematic community health needs assessment framework was used to collect information about health literacy activities, assets, gaps, and opportunities at the state and county level. Participant feedback showed the team accurately captured the activities, assets, gaps, and opportunities to improve health literacy practices. A needs assessment framework is feasible for describing community health literacy.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community Health Literacy Assessment: A Systematic Framework to Assess Activities, Gaps, Assets, and Opportunities for Health Literacy Improvement

Platter¹,

Kaplow²,

Baur³

2019

HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice

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“…2 A focus at the professional, organization, and community level suggests the need for assessment tools and data that identify activities and gaps in these contexts and indicate opportunities for improvement. Although some state-level health literacy data on people’s health literacy skills are available in the 2003 State Assessment of Adult Literacy 3 and, more recently, the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, 4 these population-level data do not characterize what professionals, organizations, and communities are doing to address health literacy in their own geopolitical areas. 5…”

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confidence: 99%

The Value of Community Health Literacy Assessments: Health Literacy in Maryland

2021

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Objective Community health assessments have typically not measured health literacy at the community level. We developed the Community Health Literacy Assessment (CHLA) framework to describe county and regional health literacy activities, assets, gaps, and opportunities in Maryland. Methods We implemented the CHLA framework in Maryland from January to August 2018. We conducted an environmental scan of Maryland’s 24 counties to identify community resources, health indicators, and organizations. We targeted local health improvement coalitions and health departments for interviews in each county. We conducted qualitative interviews to understand what key community organizations throughout Maryland are doing to implement health literacy best practices and policies. We used summative content analysis to review, quantify, and interpret interview data. Results We conducted 57 interviews with participants from 56 organizations representing all 24 counties in Maryland. We captured data on multiple dimensions of health literacy and identified 3 main themes: health literacy assets and activities, health literacy gaps, and health literacy opportunities. The most cited asset was collecting data to inform health literacy practices, the most cited gap was using jargon with community members, and the most cited opportunity was increasing public awareness of existing health programs through improved outreach and teaching health information–seeking behaviors. Conclusion A systematic community health literacy assessment is a feasible way to collect a large amount of health literacy data, which can inform strategic planning, determine community interventions, and ultimately lead us toward a health-literate society. We recommend that others replicate the CHLA framework to operationalize health literacy as a health indicator and include it as a community health assessment measure.

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Highlights From the 2003 Maryland State Assessment of Adult Literacy

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Community Health Literacy Assessment: A Systematic Framework to Assess Activities, Gaps, Assets, and Opportunities for Health Literacy Improvement

Community Health Literacy Assessment: A Systematic Framework to Assess Activities, Gaps, Assets, and Opportunities for Health Literacy Improvement

The Value of Community Health Literacy Assessments: Health Literacy in Maryland

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