Plain and Simple: A health literacy project for Iowa

Tools

Health Literacy and Plain Language Guides

Health Literacy Style Manual from the Southern Institute on Children and Families

Simply Put: A guide for creating easy-to-understand materials, CDC
Clear and Effective Patient Education: A Guide to Improving Communications in the Hospital Setting from Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
Medline Plus: How to Write Easy-to-Read Materials>
National Cancer Institute: Developing Effective Print Materials for Low-Literate Readers
The Center for Plain Language is a 501(c)(3) corporation established to propel the belief that government and business communication can be clear and understandable.
Plain Language Initiative from the NIH Executive Secretariat
Easy-to-Read NYC, a plain language guide for governmental agencies in New York (and elsewhere)
Designing Print Materials, created by the International Breast Cancer Screening Network. This communications guide has chapters on planning, needs assessments, and materials development and testing.
Health Literacy Online is a how-to guide for Web managers and professionals that includes research-based recommendations and examples to help you create clear, user-friendly health Web sites.>
Usability.gov is a one-stop source for government web designers to learn how to make websites more usable, useful, and accessible.
Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Readability Calculators and Formulas

Please see the Readability tab.

Pictograms and Graphics

General medication instructions

Download more than 80 free standardized images from U. S. Pharmacopeia Pictogram Library to convey medication instructions, precautions, and/or warnings to patients and consumers.>

Pictograms for points of dispensing (PODs) or emergency dispensing sites (EDSs)

The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services/Department for Public Health has developed pictogram signage to help direct people through PODs and mass care clinics that would serve as dispensing sites for Strategic National Stockpile assets such as vaccines or prophylaxis. Spanish and English accompanies pictograms.
The Cambridge (MA) Advanced Practice Center for Emergency Preparedness developed a series of pictograms in collaboration with local and state public health professionals, and experts in universal design and accessibility. Simple, one-word descriptions in English and Spanish included. Also available in 13 other languages.

Public Health Image Library from CDC
Information and Knowledge for Optimal Health (INFO) Project

Searchable Web-based Medical Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Why use "hypertension" when "high blood pressure" means the same thing, and is understood by more people? These dictionaries and encyclopedias put plain language at your fingertips.

Medline Plus: Encyclopedia
Medline Plus: Dictionary
Multilingual Glossary of Technical and Popular Medical Terms (in Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish)

Evaluation Tools

Award-winning guide developed by IDPH and Iowa State University Extension for the Iowa WIC (Women, Infants and Children) Program. Originally designed for evaluating written and audio/visual nutrition education materials, this guide can help you gauge the effectiveness of education materials on other topics.
Item Set for Addressing Health Literacy was developed by CAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) to provide health care providers with data that could help them improve their health literacy practices. Hear a podcast introducing this tool.

Educational Tools

2007 Health Literacy and Patient Safety: Help Patients Understand toolkit: Updated from the 2001 edition, this is the American Medical Association Foundation's primary tool for informing physicians, health care professionals and patient advocates about health literacy.
A collection of health literacy curricula: This page is a result of a discussion on the National Institute for Literacy, Health and Literacy listserv.
AHEC Health Literacy Distance Education Modules from Ohio State University
Health Literacy & Public Health, part of the "Communicate to Make a Difference" series from the New York / New Jersey Public Health Training Center.
Health Literacy Fact Sheets from the Center for Health Care Strategies
Health Literacy: New Field, New Opportunities: a self-paced tutorial developed by World Education with support from National Network of Libraries of Medicine
Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is based on the principles of universal precautions, or specific actions that providers can take to make health information more understandable for all patients.
Health Resources and Services Administration online training NEW!!
In Plain Language video from the Harvard School of Public Health
Introduction to health literacy video from Health Literacy Missouri
Introduction to health literacy video from the Institute of Medicine
Strategies to Improve Communication Between Pharmacy Staff and Patients from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Study Circles from the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. This page contains at least six sets of materials for facilitating study circles with adult literacy teachers who want to help their students develop basic skills in certain areas of health literacy.
Teach Back Video, from the North Carolina Program on Health Literacy NEW!!
Unified Health Communication (UHC): Addressing Health Literacy, Cultural Competency, and Limited English Proficiency free online training from the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Adult Education / English as a Second Language (ESL)

Eating Well, Living Well helps teachers integrate nutrition education into their ESL classrooms.
Expecting the Best is a health and wellness curriculum for ESL students designed to improve health literacy, functional literacy, and enhance English communication skills.
Health and Literacy Special Collection supports the integration of health and literacy education in adult basic education programs and health literacy awareness in health care settings.
Health Education Literacy Program (HELP) promotes information about medicine safety to adults with limited literacy skills.
H.E.L.P. (Health Education Literacy Program) Curriculum by the Institute for Healthcare Advancement targets ESL students. The course textbook is a self-help health book called What To Do When Your Child Gets Sick.

Tools for Organizations

Contact us now to get your Plain & Simple Health Literacy Awareness Building Package. You'll get a DVD with videos of real people speaking candidly about their low health literacy, discussion materials, and a copy of the Health Literacy Style Manual.
Making Your Healthcare Facility Literacy-Friendly
The Newest Vital Sign: A New Health Literacy Assessment Tool for Health Care Providers , from Pfizer NEW!!
Promising Practices for Patient-Centered Communication with Vulnerable Populations: Examples from Eight Hospitals

Other Tools

Healthy People 2020 Health Communication and Health Information Technology, includes overview, objectives, and interventions & resources NEW!!
Tips to identify people with low literacy: Find out how some people may avoid reading in front of you.

Questions or contributions? Contact Don McCormick at 515-281-6692 or use the Contact Us page to submit your question.

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Documents denoted by are available in Portable Document Format (.pdf).

Links with a icon indicate resources or web sites that are not part of the Iowa Department of Public Health.