Health Literacy

 Health Literacy. What is it?

Health literacy is the ability to find, understand and use health information.

People can have high or low health literacy. Your level of health literacy doesn't have anything to do with how much school you completed, where you work or who your doctor is. It has everything to do with  how well you find, understand and use health information.

For example, your 6 year old son has a fever. Are you sure you are reading the medicine instructions correctly? Maybe you are coming to the Y to lose weight but, you don't know how the nutrition facts label on food products can help you? These are skills that you can build and get better at and therefore, develop high health literacy.

Get started today by investigating these trustworthy web sites for information.

Health Literacy Missouri: http://healthliteracymissouri.org/

What's health literacy: http://nnlm.gov/outreach/consumer/hlthlit.html

Video- health literacy:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVzULPi3ydU   

The important questions to ask your Dr. :  http://www.npsf.org/askme3/

Build a list of questions for your Dr. :  http://www.ahrq.gov/questionsaretheanswer/questionBuilder.aspx#Q4

Med safety information:  http://talkaboutrx.org/   

Med safety training for Seniors: http://mustforseniors.org/

How to use Food/Nutrition labels: http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutrition/ConsumerInformation/ucm078889.htm

Video-Evaluating web site reliability:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/webeval/webeval_start.html

Finding information online:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthywebsurfing.html

Physical Activity Guidelines:  http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/index.html

Over-the-Counter meds:  http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/health/otc-whatsright4you/otc-meds.htm#advice

Senior Health & Medicine:  http://nihseniorhealth.gov/takingmedicines/medicinesandyourbody/01.html

Make smart decisions: http://www.healthwise.net/cochranedecisionaid

Understanding graphs: http://mste.illinois.edu/courses/ci330ms/youtsey/intro.html

Preparing for Dr. visits: http://www.nia.nih.gov/HealthInformation/Publications/TalkingWithYourDoctor/chapter02.htm

Balanced, healthy eating:  http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

Food portion VS Food serving: http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/portion/keep.htm

When to go to the emergency room: http://www.editorsweb.org/wellness/emergency-room.htm

Check our class schedule to see when the Living Well class is offered. This class helps build skills related to health literacy.