3 Managing Health Information to Improve Health Literacy

Abstract

International surveys on literacy assessment in adults show that some segments of the population do not possess literacy levels fit for the needs and requirements of contemporary society. Health literacy is a complex and multi­faceted concept linked to literacy. It seems realistic that everyone involved in healthcare can contribute to improving the health literacy level of the population through best practices in health education, health promotion and patient educa­tion in general. Health librarians can play a strategic role. Biomedical and health libraries are part of the healthcare services and can contribute to disseminat­ing health literacy awareness and creating health literate organizations. Health librarians represent not only an interface between healthcare professionals and consumers, but also an easy point of access to high quality health information. In particular, health librarians can play an active role by guiding users toward trustworthy, up to date and understandable information. Librarians can actively cooperate with healthcare professionals in the provision of clear and simple health information, with particular attention to the needs of users with low levels of health literacy. The technical competence of healthcare professionals is essential, because they alone can assure the correctness of health information from a clinical point of view. However, health librarians can help clinicians and healthcare professionals to produce good quality health information by search­ing for and accessing the best evidence available, producing plain language text, providing editorial supervision of new content and involving patient and citizen representatives. Librarians’ expertise is needed to evaluate existing health information resources, organize them in easily accessible repositories and manage health information services for consumers. In this scenario, to paraphrase Rangana­than, librarians can give every user his or her document. In this way, librarians can enhance the health literacy level of the population and fulfil their mission: “to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communi­ties” (Lankes 2011, 15).