Health Literacy Month: Community Health Literacy

Posted by Daina Dickman on October 15th, 2021 Posted in: Blog, Health Literacy

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Today for Health Literacy Month, we are looking at community health literacy. What is meant by community health literacy?  According to a policy statement from the American Public Health Association, “An individual’s health literacy level is influenced by his or her language, ability to communicate clearly and listen carefully, age, socioeconomic status, cultural background, past experiences, cognitive abilities, and mental health. In addition, health literacy is affected by the assumptions and operations of health communicators and their respective health and social systems.^” We can think of community health literacy as the unique ways health literacy operates in a given community or population group. To encourage community health literacy, it is important to be culturally competent, practice cultural humility, and be aware of language needs within different communities.

More About Community Health Literacy

National Library of Medicine Resources

• Perspectives in Cultural Competence and Cultural Humility video presented by Xan Goodman, Health Sciences Librarian, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Providing Multilingual and Multicultural Health Information video from the Network of the National Library of Medicine
• Medline Plus: an online health information resource for patients and their families and friends.
  • Medline Plus en Español
  • Population Groups in Medline Plus
  • Health Information in Multiple Languages from Medline Plus

More Resources

• Moving from Cultural Competency to Cultural Humility: A Practical Overview video from the Hawai’i Public Health Institute
• EthnoMed is Harborview Medical Center’s ethnic medicine website containing medical and cultural information about immigrant and refugee groups. Information is specific to groups in the Seattle area, but much of the cultural and health information is of interest and applicable in other geographic areas.
• A Journey We Walk Together: Strengthening Indigenous Cultural Competency in Health Organizations report and assessment tools from First Nations Health Managers Association and the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement