I like Nutbeam's view of health literacy as part of health promotion. Especially that "Critical Health Literacy" is the part that could help people in taking action on social determinants. This is much different than most other literature on health literacy and I think has potential. 

In my work I am asked about helping physicians and clinics in dealing with social determinants and that has led me to look at critical health literacy as a part of the answer. One by helping physicians become advocates for improvements in social determinants. Another is by adapting work done there in Canada around physicians taking poverty into account in their practice. And another is continuing to find ways to encourage people to act on social determinants. 

It may turn out to be a dead end, but since I'm assigned to work with docs and clinics here in New Mexico it seems worth a shot. 

Enrique Cardiel 
Urban Health Extension Coordinator 
505-925-7393 
It's time we made it possible for all Americans to afford to see a doctor, 
but it's also time we made it less likely that they need to!



-----Original Message-----
From: Social Determinants of Health on behalf of Stasha Donahue
Sent: Thu 2/3/2011 11:18 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SDOH] Heath Literacy as a Key Determiant of Health
 
Hi all SDOH list participants



I recently read this statement from an in house not yet released document which was essentially a literature review on health literacy done by an external consultant in Calgary.  I wanted to gain perspective from others via this posting.



"Health literacy is highly correlated with health outcomes and is considered a better predictor of health status than education, socioeconomic status, employment, race/ethnicity, or gender".



I have yet to read the full document as I am too busy conducting focus groups with AHS staff with regards to Reducing Health Disparities across the province.



I am just wondering how the rest of the SDOH list thinks about that statement regarding health literacy... particularly those in Population and Public Health realms?



From what I have read and reviewed health literacy is a function of determinants such as eduction, employment, income levels etc?  This (health literacy) seems kind of downstream to me as a previous ground level evidence based population health practitioner focussed on poverty reduction and SDOH for health equity.

Of course, far be it for me to criticize AHS...



Any thoughts?  And feel free to challenge me if you think I am incorrect in my thinking...





Stasha Donahue
Health Promotion Specialist -Reducing Disparities
Health Promotion, Disease & Injury Prevention
Population and Public Health
Fort Macleod Health Care Centre
Box 520
Fort Macleod, AB T0L 0Z0
Tel: 403-553-5352 Fax: 403-553-2333



















From a population health perspective, I strongly disagree with this statement.





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