2014 Conference Agenda

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Invited Panels

A. Health Literacy across the Lifespan

Health literacy issues impact people of all ages. In this panel discussion, we will present research focusing on different age groups and life stages, and that also addresses health literacy issues over the life course. Session objectives are to:

• Learn about health literacy rates among different age groups
• Consider how health literacy issues vary by age group
• Discuss how one’s health literacy in adolescence impacts health care use and status throughout one’s life
• Explore how one’s health literacy in adolescence is associated with health literacy later in life

B. Advancing the Impact of Health Literacy Research: Enhancing the usefulness of established and new measures of health literacy

Session objectives are:

• Describe the use of the medication management subscale from FLIGHT/VIDAS in counseling patients on how to use their medications.
• Explain the relations of health literacy to SES, subjective social status, health-related quality of life, and health service utilization.
• State three criteria for evaluating short forms of health literacy measures.
• State two reasons why English-Spanish bilinguals should be assessed for language dominance when evaluating their health literacy.

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Tuesday November 4, 2014

 Keynote Address – Judith Hibbard

Invited Panels:

C. Oral Health Literacy: Research Themes & Directions

Landmark documents such as Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General (2000), A National Call to Action to Promote Oral Health (2003), the American Dental Association’s Health Literacy in Dentistry Action Plan, 2010-2015 (2009), and the Institute of Medicine’s Oral Health Literacy Workshop Summary (2013) have brought attention to the important role that clear communication plays in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of oral diseases.  During the last 10 years, research in oral health literacy has grown and evolved.  Oral health literacy investigators borrowed principles from the general health literacy field while also accounting for unique elements of the dental healthcare system; adapting and applying existing methods to address specific oral health problems.  Given this movement from the general to the specific, the oral health literacy field serves as a model for investigators who would like to adapt existing tools to their specific disciplines. The panel will guide audience members through the evolving field of oral health literacy research by:

• Describing the unique elements of the dental healthcare system and their impacts on oral health literacy research
• Introducing a conceptual model of oral health literacy research
• Discussing some of the challenges to measurement in oral health literacy research, including validity, reliability, and stability of measures over time
• Exploring ways to assist dental patients with limited health literacy skills
• Describing barriers to and facilitators of health outcomes in community-based dental clinics

D. Shared Decision Making: New Challenges for Health Literacy

Share decision making (SDM) is widely endorsed and offers many benefits to patients, but it presents daunting health communication challenges. In contrast to the traditional paternalistic model of medicine, SDM requires patients understand their health condition, the range of treatment options, the consequences of no treatment, and the pros and cons of their options. It further requires they grapple with often difficult trade-offs in risks and benefits, confront uncertainty, and communicate their personal values and preferences to their health care provider. These tasks can be especially challenging for those patients with limited health literacy or numeracy, or for those whose health care providers do not embrace SDM.  Session objectives are:

• Understand how the complexity of risk/benefit trade-offs and understanding an array of treatments confounds even highly educated families
• Learn about the challenges health care providers face in staying up to date on the available treatment options, interpreting and simplifying information that information for patients, and presenting it in an unbiased way
• Understand the challenges of integrating shared decision making into a health system as a practice standard
• Learn about strategies and next-generation decision tools that are being created to address these issues

E. Research Findings from Successful Nursing Interventions

Successful nursing research studies have the potential for broader dissemination to improve health literacy through a variety of interventions. This panel will include a discussion of core competencies for nursing students with suggestions for how to promote health literacy, medication management among various populations will be presented along with the outcomes of successful interventions, and improved screening and management of chronic disease among disparate populations. Session objectives are to identify:

• Competencies for health literacy that should be incorporated into the nursing curriculum
• Nursing interventions that can reduce disparities of low health literacy
• Populations that can have improved health outcomes through nursing interventions for health literacy
• How health literacy interventions can improve medication management among various populations
• The role of health literacy in chronic disease management

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Special Interest Groups

Nursing

A discussion involving the key components of preparing an NINR application, as well as what funding opportunities are available at this time with a focus on health literacy.

Session objectives include:

• Increase familiarity with the NIH review process for grant applications.
• Identify NIH funding opportunities related to health literacy research

Pediatrics

Given the many changes to the health care system with the ACA, a discussion regarding experience with identified obstacles for the pediatric population in signing up and receiving care and remaining with in a medical home as well as experiences with best practices is proposed. Following this, there will be a general discussion involving the entire audience, to discuss audience thoughts on advocacy efforts, research efforts to provide support for future initiatives and development of a set of priorities in this area. Session objectives include:

• Familiarize participants with obstacles encountered by the pediatric population in the ACA- Common Gaps in Knowledge
• Familiarize participants with State Specific Best Practices
• Discuss and develop Advocacy Priorities

Pharmacy (new this year!)

The profession of pharmacy seems underrepresented in current research endeavors involving health literacy. . Currently standards exist to incorporate health-literacy into the curriculum for pharmacy schools and colleges. The major point of discussion is to determine how pharmacists fit into the health-literacy spectrum to include increased endeavors in pharmacy education, research and practice.  Session objectives include:

• Describe the potential impact of pharmacists on outcomes.
• Discuss medication related health-literacy issues and associated outcomes.
• Describe the potential role of pharmacists and current research endeavors in health literacy
• Establish and expand a network for pharmacists to commence health literacy initiatives and collaborative research.

Measurement

The Health Literacy Measurement Special Interest Group will facilitate a participatory discussion about: (1) the state of the science of health literacy measurement, (2) progress made in this area of research over the past year, and (3) directions for moving the science forward in the short- and long-term. First, the HARC 2013 Conference proposed Health Literacy Measurement Research Agenda will be reviewed to provide a broad overview of the state of the science in health literacy measurement. Then, a brief summary of two oral presentations (authored by the two session moderators) on health literacy measurement from this year’s conference will be highlighted; both of which provide a thorough review of the published health literacy tools to date, including their strengths & limitations.