Health and Literacy: Perspectives in 2002.

The concepts of literacy and health have been evolving and broadening, and interest in the connections between the two has been growing in Australia and elsewhere. However, the scope of practices related to health literacy in the health fields and in the adult literacy education field have remained fairly static. Research has identified the following levels of health literacy and related educational goals: (1) functional health literacy (communication of information); (2) interactive health literacy (development of personal skills); and (3) critical health literacy (personal and community empowerment). Driven by the focus of research, the medical system has responded in two main ways to the difficulties of low-literate patients accessing health information and health education. One has been to develop instruments permitting rapid measurement of patients' literacy levels, and the other has been to assess the readability of medical information and rewrite it in plain language. Health materials have long been part of literacy and English-for-speakers-of-other-languages curricula in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States. Research and policy initiatives in those countries can serve as models to Australian medical service and literacy education providers interested in developing and implementing health literacy collaborations. (A bibliography listing 35 references and an annotated listing of 7 World Wide Web links are included.) (MN)