Resources to Support Health Literacy and Vaccine Uptake

Hello POP Providers, 

To start off the new year, we are sharing resources to help you support health literacy in your patients.

Health literacy is about helping people find, understand and use health information and services and has been shown to be impactful in increasing COVID-19 prevention measures, including vaccination.

Healthy People 2030 defines two categories of health literacy:

“Personal Health Literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.

Organizational Health Literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.”

Health care professionals can promote health literacy by:

1. Communicating and answering questions with simple non-medical language
2. Communicating as though every patient is at risk for misunderstanding provided information
3. Encouraging patients to participate in health care decisions
4. Listening to understand and checking in with patients to confirm understanding
5. Developing and testing educational materials with intended audience

Organizations can support health literacy by adopting the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) Ten Attributes of Health Literate Health Care Organizations. 

Here are some additional health literacy resources for you and your patients:

Provider Resources-

• Vaccine Recipient Education (CDC)
• Rural Health Literacy Toolkit (RHIhub)
• Health Literacy Resources for Health Care Professionals (AHRQ)
• Integrating Cultural Information into Clinical Practice (EthnoMed)
• Talking With Your Older Patient (NIA)
• Online Health Literacy Courses from the CDC (free CE credits available)
• Physician’s Practical Guide to Culturally Competent Care (US Office of Minority Health, CE credits available)
• Health Equity Guiding Principles for Inclusive Communication (CDC)
• Health Literacy & Public Health: Introduction and Strategies for Addressing Low Health Literacy (PHTC, CE credits available)

• Plain Language: Getting Started or Brushing Up (NIH training page)
• Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Tools and Training (AHRQ)
• Updating Health Literacy for Healthy People 2030 Podcast
• SHARE Approach Curriculum and Resources (AHRQ)

Patient Resources-

• Easy to Read Health Information (National Library of Medicine)
• Health Information in Multiple Languages (National Library of Medicine)
• Talking With Your Doctor Worksheets (NIA)
• Be Prepare to Be Engaged Patient Materials (AHRQ)
• Health Literacy Resources for Patients (AHRQ)
• My Healthfinder (OASH)

Peer-to-Peer Webinars

January 13: The Work Starts Here: Supporting Employees with Long COVID

January 27: Active Coping in the Long-Term: Health Care Provider Resilience

February 3: Respiratory Virus Activity Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

March 3: Managing Post-Acute Sequalae of COVID (PASC), Part 1

March 24: Managing Post-Acute Sequalae of COVID (PASC), Part 2

We wish you all peace, happiness, and ease in 2023,

Power of Providers Team  

Prevention and Community Health Division  

Washington State Department of Health  

powerofproviders@doh.wa.gov  

360-236-2662 | www.doh.wa.gov/pop