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6 Concluding Panel
Pages 83-96

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From page 83...
... Joining with other health literacy professionals, the European Health Literacy Survey was initiated. In thinking about how to move forward, it is important to keep in mind why many dedicated people pushed for health literacy in general and the European Health Literacy Survey in particular, she said.
From page 84...
... It is not acceptable for a European welfare state to have such low levels of health literacy, particularly if they are low in comparison to others, Kickbusch said. Should health literacy be measured only at the individual level or at the community level, or should it be measured at the population level?
From page 85...
... . Health literacy advocates should, she said, start developing policy briefs with economic arguments about the cost of low health literacy, about the unacceptability of 47 percent of the population having low health literacy, about the contributions of health literacy to achieving healthy life-years, and about health literacy's contributions to the quality agenda and to a patient-centered health care system.
From page 86...
... Pelikan said there is only fragmented knowledge, especially for general populations, about the distribution of health literacy and its associations with social causes, conditions, and determinants of lower health literacy. There is also growing knowledge about the association of health literacy with vulnerable population groups and with health relevant consequences (e.g., health behavior, health status, use of services, and costs)
From page 87...
... A much more integrated approach is needed, he said, and there are some good models of such efforts. There is the OECD International Adult Literacy Survey, the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, the Program for International Student Assessment, and the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies.
From page 88...
... The second goal was to enhance knowledge and improve health literacy to enable people to make informed choices about their health. The third goal was to enhance knowledge and improve health literacy to enable people to take an active role in bringing about changes in the environments that shape their health.
From page 89...
... Nutbeam expressed concern that this is exacerbating conceptual confusion and could actually result in holding back scientific advancement and the translation of health literacy into policy and practice. Nutbeam identified three important tasks necessary for improving health literacy.
From page 90...
... It is important to continue to broaden and test different types of interventions beyond health care settings and disease groups into schools, adult learning, and community development. There is also great potential for e-health and mobile health initiatives.
From page 91...
... Lisa Khan-Kapadia, a health literacy program manager with Community Healthcare Network, commented that the need for research on what companies are doing internally to integrate health literacy into their organizations is very important. She said that her job is to change the culture of the network of federally qualified health centers to become health literacy organizations.
From page 92...
... Furthermore, it would be good to develop a policy brief on the state of and impact of health literacy, he said. Second, World Economic Forum documents contain the term health literacy but there is a need for more -- again, policy briefs and, perhaps, an index of health literacy are needed, he said.
From page 93...
... Many in the health literacy field are grappling with trying to determine what kinds of arguments and what kinds of data are needed in order to be able to obtain funding. It would be great, she said, to find a measure that would help in political measurements, such as a measure that showed "low health literacy costs x amount of dollars." Kickbusch said that in discussions with European insurance companies those companies have expressed concern about health literate people because they fear such individuals will use the health system more.
From page 94...
... Cindy Brach, Roundtable member, said that although health literacy may not be a verb it is evolving to be more of an adjective, such as becoming a health literate organization, engaging in health literate health promotion, and promoting health literate patient safety. The discussion is about doing things differently.
From page 95...
... Health literacy needs to be embedded into the main line of policy development, into the use of information technology, and into the delivery of high-quality care, Isham said. There are many opportunities, and it is important to broaden understanding of the impact of health literacy beyond the core of health literacy researchers and experts.
From page 96...
... Bernstein said she hopes the international health literacy efforts will grow and include developing nations so that such dysfunction will not continue. Sofia Leticia Morales of the Pan American Health Organization said she believes health literacy is an outcome.


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