Health Literacy and Libraries

This article is about a program held at the American Library Association Conference in San Francisco the end of June.

Medline Plus Health Literacy Web Page

Medline Plus has a Health Literacy Web Page. It compiles a variety of sources relate to health literacy. Their latest article is on how low reading levels impact people who have a heart attack.

Medline Plus is a free site by the National Library of Medicine, a part of the National Institutes of Health, created and maintained to assist people in locating authoritative health information.

This site has a form, created like a survey, that a person can go through and use to determine what questions he or she needs to ask the doctor.  A tutor could use this site as part of a lesson related to health literacy, if a learner has a doctor's appointment.

October is Health Literacy Month. There are many resources available on health. The Florida Literacy Coalition has a health literacy curriculum that can be downloaded or print copies can be ordered.