Health Literacy Toolbox

This Learning Toolbox focuses on health literacy as an important determinant of health equity and outcomes. It includes links to articles, tools, and resources to improve the health literacy of organizations and patients.

• About the IPRO QIN-QIO’s Health Literacy Toolbox
• CDC’s Health Literacy
• CDC’s Health Literacy Basics
• AHRQ’s Health Literacy
• IHS’s Health Literacy
• Fact Sheets: Health Literacy
• Article: New Federal Policy Initiatives to Boost Health Literacy Can Help the Nation Move Beyond the Cycle of Costly ‘Crisis Care’
• Article: Patients, Providers, and Systems Need to Acquire a Specific Set of Competencies to Achieve Truly Patient-Centered Care

• Health Literacy in Healthy People
• Policy: National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy
• Presentation: Health Literacy Made Simple
• Health Literacy
• Article: Reduced Hospitalizations, Emergency Room Visits, and Costs Associated with a Web-Based Health Literacy, Aligned-Incentive Intervention: Mixed Methods Study

Major Reports

• Report: Health Literacy Updates and Outcomes: A Systematic Review
• IOM Roundtable on Health Literacy
• Report: Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion
• Report: The Health Literacy of America’s Adults:  Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy

• Older Adults:  Are You Communicating Effectively with Older Adults?
• Article: Health Literacy and the Older Adult
• Article: Health Literacy and Older Adults: A Systematic Review

Plain Language

• Clear Communication Index Website Widget
• Plain Language Materials and Resources
• Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective
• Center for Plain Language
• Clear Communication
• Health Literacy and Plain Language
• Plain Language

• Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit, 2^nd Edition
• Re-Engineered Discharge (RED) Toolkit
• Teach-Back: Intervention
• Online Training Course: Health Literacy for Public Health Professionals
• Toolkit: Health Literacy Online:  A Guide to Writing and Designing Easy-to-Use Health Web Sites

• Online Training Course: Effective Communication Tools for Healthcare Professionals
• Always Use Teach-Back! Training Toolkit
• Teach-Back
• Ask Me 3: Good Questions for Getting the Right Diagnosis
• Toolkit: Helping Older Adults Search for Health Information Online:  A Toolkit for Trainers

Tools for Patients & Families

• Question Builder
• Health Literacy
• Script Your Future
• Medication Adherence Tool: Script Your Future Wallet Cards
• Coverage to Care (C2C)
• Medspeak in Plain Language

• Test Your Document’s Readability (Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Word)
• The Flesch Grade Level Readability Formula
• Fact Sheet: Fry Readability Formula: An Overview
• Fact Sheet: The “SMOG” Readability Test (Short Version)
• Usability.gov
• Readability Test Tool

Literacy Skills Assessment

• Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine—Short Form (REALM-SF)
• Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Adults – Spanish and English (SAHL-S&E)
• Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish Adults (SAHLSA-50)
• Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM)
• Article: U.S. Consumer’s Understanding of Nutrition Labels in 2013: The Importance of Health Literacy
• Health Literacy Measurement Tool Shed
• Skills Assessment Tool: Newest Vital Sign (NVS)
• Literacy Assessment Instruments