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Promoting health information literacy.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

The recent development of public health informatics as an interdisciplinary field, and the dissemination of this body of knowledge, have brought forth new opportunities for collaboration between the faculty of health sciences and academic library. This paper explores the potential areas for collaboration, describes empirical collaborative projects between these two parties in enhancing the information literacy of public health discipline in a major health science center, and discusses the lessons learned, including the opportunities and challenges associated with the collaboration.

Background

1.1 Information literacy and health literacy

According to the Association of College and Research Libraries, information literacy is a set of competencies that enables individuals to recognize needs for information, and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use the needed information effectively. [1] General information literacy is an important attribute in achieving lifelong learning, because it contributes to informed decisions based on critical reasoning and thinking. On the health spectrum and as a subset of information literacy, health literacy relates to the degree to which people can obtain, understand and process basic health information and services, and then act on appropriate health decisions. It is one of the crucial, enabling capabilities that could contribute to the realization of the goals of Healthy People 2010 as stipulated by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [2] By comparison, both definitions of literacy address the acquisition of information when needed, assessment of information with scientific facts and expert advice as the knowledge base, and utilization of the results of the combined actions to execute knowledge-based strategies leading to informed decisions, such as the choice of a healthy lifestyle.

1.2 Public Health Informatics

Closely related to health information sciences, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) defines public health informatics as the systematic application of information and computer sciences to public health practice, research, and learning. [3] The literature suggests that effective dissemination of public health literacy play an important role in the decision of the general public in seeking preventive health measures and healthcare services. For seeking preventive health, one study found that patients who had inadequate reading skills did not know that mammography was associated with diagnosing breast cancer. Conversely, women with adequate literacy skills who read on at least a 9th grade level appeared to be adequately informed about mammography. [4] Another study found that increased access to self-care books, telephone advice nurses, and Internet-based health information was associated with decreases in reported pediatric healthcare utilization. [5]

In terms of literacy and health care, research results of two separate hospital studies have suggested that the literacy skills of patients with diabetes, hypertension, and asthma were the strongest correlates of knowledge about their illness and disease management skills, even after statistical adjustments were made for conventional sociodemographic co-variables. [6] [7], The results of the studies also suggest that the interventions (of enhanced health literacy) were associated with a decreased reliance on health professionals for information. These findings suggest that improved literacy is a critical component in improving public well being, and in the context of public health, improved literacy is crucial in the pursuit of preventive health and appropriate management of diseases.

Public health informatics is a discipline that applies information technology to public health science. [8] By this definition, the faculty of the School of Public Health (SPH) conducts teaching, research and community services widely involving public health informatics. These may include using relational databases to store the results of survey questions, presenting epidemiological data using the Geographic Information Systems (GIS), analyzing various potential socio-biological risk determinants of...

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