Library Guides: Health Literacy: A Guide: Creating patienteducation materials

Guidelines for Developing Easy-to-Read Materials

Communicate Health blog
Guidelines for Creating Materials
From the Harvard School of Public Health
Words to Watch
From the National Patient Safety Foundation
Word Suggestions
From Plain Language.gov: Improving Communication from the Federal Government to the Public
Simply Put: A Guide for Creating Easy to Understand Materials
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, July 2010. PDF
National Institute on Aging - Making your printed health materials senior-friendly
This tip sheet offers ideas for how to tailor health information so that it fits the needs of your older readers. From the National Institute on Aging
Plain Language Thesaurus for Health Communication
From the CDC, an alphabetized list of medical terms to use
Health Literacy Online: A Guide to Writing and Designing Easy-to-Use Health Web Sites
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 2010.
MedlinePlus - How to Write Easy-to-Read Health Materials

Readability and Health Literacy Assessment Tools

Readability Formulas
Free readability tools to check for Reading Levels, Reading Assessment, and Reading Grade Levels. (Free SMOG Readability Calculator).
FRY Readability Graph
A commonly used readability assessment tool. From the Iowa Department of Public Health.
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WAS: http://www.idph.state.ia.us/health_literacy/common/pdf/tools/fry.pdf

OR: http://www.chtc.org/dl/handouts/20070116/Handout%203.pdf
Gunning FOG readability test
One of the first readability tools. It is widely used.
Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine—Short Form (REALM-SF)
Use this short tool to estimate a patient's reading level.

Guidelines for culturally-appropriate materials to promote health equity

Our thanks to the librarians at the Knowledge Center Library at the Office of Minority Health Resource Center for their great work in providing these resources to promote health equity.

Guidelines for Writing Oral Health Materials for Audiences with Limited Literacy
This document provides tips that can help you write educational oral health materials that
are easy for everyone to understand.
CLAS Standards
National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) issued by the federal Office of Minority Health. They are primarily directed at health care organizations; however, individual providers are also encouraged to use the standards to make their practices more culturally and linguistically accessible

Patient Education Resources

Deciphering Medspeak - MLAnet - What did my doctor just say?
Plain Language Thesaurus for Health Communication
From the CDC, an alphabetized list of medical terms to use
MedlinePlus - Choosing effective patient education materials
How to choose effective patient education materials once you have assessed your patient’s needs, concerns, readiness to learn, preferences, support, and possible barriers to learning

ClinicalKey This link opens in a new window
Search for Patient Education in ClinicalKey. American Academy of Family Physicians (633) Elsevier Gold Standard (3558) ExitCare, LLC (4086) Ferri's Netter Patient Advisor (727)

AccessMedicine - Patient Education
McGraw-Hill's Postgraduate Medicine: The Practical Peer-Reviewed Journal for Primary Care Physicians.
CareNotes™ System - MICROMEDEX 2.0
Patient information with complete, easy-to-understand information about all aspects of their care, medications, and health, in English or Spanish.

Tips for Patient Education

Oral Communication Best Practice

Communication is 2-way
Use 'teach back' when giving instruction
Avoid medical Jargon
Use commonly understood words
Limit information to 2-3 key messages
Use MedlinePlus videos
At the end of your patient education encounter, ask the patient what question they have about using MedlinePlus, other resource, or their condition. It is important to use the phrase "What questions do you have" as opposed to "do you have any questions" to avoid setting yourself up for a 'yes' or 'no' answer.