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Health Literacy: Tools

Assessing Readability

Improving Communication

Ask Me 3a patient education program designed to improve communication between patients and health care providers, encourage patients to become active members of their health care team, and promote improved health outcomes

PlainLanguage.gov - Plain language guidelines, training resources, tips, tools, and more

Clear Communication - From Pfizer: "We are working with nationally recognized organizations and experts to develop tools and solutions to improve communication between patients and providers."

Assessing Health Literacy

REALM-R - a word recognition test consisting of 11 items used to identify people at risk for poor literacy skills

SAHLSA-50 - The Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish Adults (SAHLSA-50) is a validated health literacy assessment tool containing 50 items designed to assess a Spanish-speaking adult’s ability to read and understand common medical terms

STOFHLA

The Newest Vital Sign - a valid and reliable screening tool available in English and Spanish that identifies patients at risk for low health literacy

The Single Item Literacy Screener 

Patient Education Information

Locating:

Patient Information Research Guide

Creating:

Clear & Simple - produced by the National Institutes of Health, this guide outlines a process for developing communication materials for people with limited-literacy skills

How to Write Easy-to-Read Health Materials - from MedlinePlus

Simply Put - from CDC

Everyday Words for Public Health Communication - from CDC

Assessing:

The Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) and User’s Guide - from AHRQ

Discussing:

PatEdNet is an electronic mailing list for patient education professionals to share and discuss patient education issues. To Subscribe - Send Email to sympa@lists.hsc.utah.eduSubject: SUB patednet -insert your email address-