The Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) will present four awards on Friday, May 10, for outstanding achievements in health literacy. The awards will be presented at its Twelfth Annual Health Literacy Conference, Operational Solutions to Low Health Literacy, May 8-10 at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine, Calif. The conference will be attended by over 300 professionals working in healthcare, health educators, and individuals with an interest in literacy challenges as they relate to healthcare.
IHA, a non-profit healthcare organization and a leader in the health literacy field, received nominations from the nations foremost health literacy authorities and researchers. Winners were selected in the categories of Research, Innovative Programs, and Published Materials.
The winners of the four 2013 IHA Health Literacy Awards are:
Research (co-winner one of two)
Canyon Ranch Institute Life Enhancement Program (CRI LEP): An evidence-based, inter-disciplinary, integrative health program that increases health literacy while preventing, diagnosing, and addressing chronic disease.
Jennifer Cabe, Executive Director & Board Member, Canyon Ranch Institute.
Awardee: Canyon Ranch Institute, a 501(c)3 public charity
Healthy lifestyle changes can be difficult to implement--this is particularly true for low-income, medically underserved populations where chronic diseases and low health literacy pose a real threat. The CRI LEP developed by Canyon Ranch Institute (CRI), is a unique intervention research program targeted towards helping individuals embrace a starting point and plan for change, while awakening ones own sense of purpose and self-efficacy. Program participants are recruited and screened from the patient populations of CRIs partnering health care organizations, using criteria such as high blood pressure, abnormal blood lipids, physical inactivity, obesity and Type 2 diabetes, or multiple diagnoses of chronic disease. The CRI LEP evaluates and supports the whole person through seven core program elements: nutrition, physical activity, behavior change, sense of purpose, integrative health, stress management and social support and follow up. The 40-hour program, available in English and Spanish, includes but is not limited to 12 three-hour facilitated participatory group sessions that provide participants with tools to make healthy changes, as well as four one-on-one sessions for one-hour each with health professionals who help participants define a personalized approach for optimal physiological, behavioral and social well-being. The CRI LEP is tailored to each community with an inter-disciplinary team of local health professionals. We approach each person and community as equal collaborators, drawing on our respective strengths to realize a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, stated Jennifer Cabe, Executive Director & Board Member for Canyon Ranch Institute. The CRI LEP Core Teams at local partner sites include physicians, nutritionists, exercise professionals, social workers, nurses, behavioral health specialists, pharmacists and spirituality professionals. Each member of the Core Team receives 90 hours of training from CRI to integrate their efforts as a team of professionals who can effectively deliver the CRI LEP curriculum. Evaluation results of completed CRI LEP participants show significant improvements in multiple health outcomes, behaviors and attitudes, including a 56% reduction in PHQ-9 depression scores, 44% reduction in stress, 60% reduction in ultra C-reactive protein (a marker for inflammation), 113% increase in exercise per week and 87% increase in mentally or physically health days per month. Our research is among the first to conclusively show that when you improve health literacy, you can also improve health outcomes, said Cabe.
Research (co-winner two of two)
Picture Thismobile technology to help improve health literacy and outcomes
Dr. Christine Kennedy, Professor and Koehn Endowed Chair in Childrens Health
Awardee: University of California, San Francisco
The adage a picture is worth a thousand words refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single image. Dr. Christine Kennedy, Professor and Koehn Endowed Chair in Childrens Health at University of California, San Francisco, investigates that idea further in her research study called, Picture This. Our research investigates the possibility of leveraging mobile health (mHealth) technology to further health literacy research and practice to bridge ethnic and racial health disparities, states Kennedy. In a world driven by technological innovation and the inherent market tendency to design for the wealthy, as opposed to diverse populations with low health literacy, Picture This aims to create new opportunities for mHealth technology and health literacy professionals/practitioners through the complexity of mobile health informatics by testing a new mode of visual communication for health. Picture This is a three phase research study in which a mobile phone application (mHealth app) is being developed and used to help health care providers promote more physical activity and less sedentary behavior among patients. In the first design phase Picture This recruited urban Mexican American adults, a group at risk for sedentary behavior. The research team conducted six focus groups with 42 Spanish-speaking, Latinos of Mexican descent (consumers), two focus groups within the Spanish-speaking promotoras and six in-depth interviews with nurse practitioners. Groups explored the feasibility and acceptability of a potential mHealth application using visual communication, testing multiple visual design elements including non-textual representations (e.g. icons, pictograms, animation, and videos). Results indicate a high degree of acceptability of a mHealth application with an emphasis on visual communication among consumers. Research showed that while participants in the study were likely to use their cell phone to text and make phone calls, the majority of consumers did not prefer to play games or enter competitions on their phone. Understanding these preferences and how they differ in the U.S. population is important in developing health literacy interventions for mobile phone platforms for use among Spanish-speaking Latinos with low health literacy, said Kennedy. Although this study is specific to sedentary behavior and physical activity, the applicability of impacting the field of mobile health communication at large is inevitable. Visual mobile apps could be a complete game changer in the way we, as healthcare providers, share and receive knowledge, strengthen dialog with our patients and improve health outcomes, Kennedy states.
Innovative Programs
Peer Language Navigator (PLN) Project
Rhonda Johnson and Polly Smith, Co-Chairs
Awardee: The Alaska Health Literacy Collaborative (TAHLC)
When it comes to effective communication, one style does not fit all. Every culture has its own way of saying things and its own special expressions. Never has this been more accurate than in the city of Anchorage, Alaska where the student body composition in schools is continually changing. Anchorage is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the nation, with nearly 100 languages spoken in the Anchorage School District, it has recently become a refugee resettlement city. The Anchorage Health Literacy Collaborative (TAHLC), which is co-led by the Alaska Literacy Program and the University of Alaska Anchorage Graduate Program in Public Health, understands the effects of low health literacy, particularly in underserved areas where people who are new to the community may not even understand how or where to access healthcare and health information. As a result, they developed a Peer Language Navigator (PLN) Project. The project targets and hires people from ethnic
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