Designing for Health Literacy

Abstract

Health literacy is recognized worldwide as a key to obtaining and maintaining personal health. A health literate individual who has the access to resources that they can both understand and navigate can make empowered, personal health decisions both on their own and with their health care provider, and the benefits thereof are many. For example, health literacy has been shown to prevent disease, lead to early detection of disease, and lead to improved adherence to chronic disease treatment. Yet, only a fraction of the population is considered health literate. Women and immigrants in particular need health provider supported health literacy development strategies that focus on empathy and emotional support to help motivate them to make health decisions for a preferred health outcome. Health literacy is dependent upon the communication of health information. Various communication strategies exist to support the delivery of health information and ecological models have also been developed to support heath information delivery more effectively through multiple sources. Regarding the type of health information communicated, research has suggested that patients prefer information on actionable solutions rather than facts about the condition itself. Solution-focused, strengths-based, and participatory design strategies have also been shown to be effective in increasing health literacy skills. Participatory, generative design research tools engage participants to elicit deeper emotions regarding their current state and preferred future state and could be useful in supporting health literacy development. How might generative tools support women's and immigrants' health literacy development within an ecological health literacy model? Research was conducted to explore how participatory, generative design research tools could be an effective approach to help female and immigrant patients realize their health potential by empowering them with health literacy skills through accessible and engaging health information aligned with their personal strengths and identified solutions. Generative tools, such as interviews, worksheets, and journey mapping, that could potentially help women and immigrants express both their current and ideal future state, were explored. Generative tools were iterated to allow patients to align their personal strengths, solutions, and health information with their ideal future state in order to create a roadmap tool that could support health literacy development and assist them in realizing their potential in health situations. The resulting literature review-based generative health literacy toolkit was tested at the Indiana University School of Medicine Student Outreach Clinic. Nursing students, who serve the role of patient navigators, engaged their patients with the toolkit activities. Surveys to measure patient confidence in realizing their health potential were also conducted before and after intervention. Findings included a health literacy ecosystem that comprises at least two levels for health information communication, actionable health information patients can utilize to improve their health condition, and patient generated strategies for treatment plan and lifestyle change adherence in everyday life outlined in a journey map form that can be taken home for reference and motivation. Outcomes of toolkit use in the clinic included improved communication between providers and patients, as well as patient empowerment to move forward with improved health behaviors.