IHA Partners With Nursing Outlook to Publish Special Health Literacy Issue

LA HABRA, Calif., April 5, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As part of its efforts to increase awareness of health literacy and share innovative solutions, the Institute for Healthcare Advancement's CEO Gloria Mayer, RN, EdD, and COO Michael Villaire, MSLM, have guest-edited a special issue of the journal Nursing Outlook. The March/April 2011 issue is dedicated to health literacy, which has been defined as "The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions." (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. 2000)

As Mayer and Villaire state in their guest editorial, nine in 10 American adults have limited health literacy. They go on to explain, "The signs and symptoms of poor health literacy are everywhere. Those with low functional health literacy are: less likely to be able to navigate the healthcare system effectively for needed services; less likely to understand written and oral information given to them by healthcare providers; more likely to incur higher healthcare costs; more likely to miss scheduled doses of medication; more likely to have a chronic illness; less likely to be able to effectively manage their chronic illness; and more likely to be hospitalized."

The issue is a collection of articles written by presenters from  IHA's Ninth Annual Health Literacy, which took place May 6-7, 2010 in Irvine, Calif. Article topics include implementing a national action plan to improve health literacy, the oral literacy demand of health communications, using a universal precautions toolkit, teaching health literacy to healthcare professionals, and an examination of consensus in health literacy measurements.  The full table of contents for the issue can be viewed online at www.nursingoutlook.org/issues/contents?issue_key=S0029-6554(11)X0002-7.

IHA is located in La Habra, California, and is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) public charity, dedicated to empowering people to better health. It is nationally recognized as a leader in health literacy and health education information through its various publishing efforts, the Internet, and national health literacy conference. To find out more about the annual Health Literacy Conference, as well as other IHA programs, please visit www.iha4health.org.

SOURCE Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA)