Academy for Educational Development

Youth: Teens Track Local Health Literacy Resources

Ninety million Americans can’t understand the health information given to them by doctors, nurses, or pharmacists. Whether it is technical language on consent forms, or confusing instructions from health practitioners, often the text is too complex for many people to comprehend.

Youth in Florida participate in a Community YouthMapping training exercise.

Two groups of youth—one from Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater Fla., and the other from Harlem, N.Y.—worked over the summer of 2005 to tackle this problem by participating in Community YouthMapping© focused on health literacy.

The project is the result of a major report issued last year by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies called, “Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion.” AED Executive Vice President William Smith participated in the development of the report. AED and the IOM worked together to coordinate the Community YouthMapping/Health Literacy project.

“Study after study shows that many Americans cannot understand the health materials they are given, which makes it much more difficult for them to receive quality health care,” said William Smith. “Youth mapping is a powerful and effective way to help communities address this problem.”

In early September, the teens traveled to Washington, D.C. to present their findings and recommendations to Mr. Smith and Harvey Fineberg, president of the IOM. Mr. Fineberg noted that the project would help medical institutions better understand how reports produced by the IOM are used at the ground level.

Community YouthMapping is a process, developed by the AED Center for Youth Development and Policy Research, through which young people canvass local businesses and organizations and document where to find different kinds of resources. In the past, youth have mapped educational, after-school, and employment resources. This time, the teams of youth identified places and institutions within their communities where citizens, educators, and health professionals can go to get help with their health literacy needs.

Health Literacy a Serious Issue

The youth in Florida found that majority of the people they surveyed thought health literacy was a “very serious” or “serious” issue. And nearly two-thirds of the 301 people surveyed reported that they knew someone with a health literacy problem.  Youth as Resources, a Pinellas County 4-H program, headed up that arm of the Community YouthMapping project.

Of the 90 organizations the youth surveyed, more than two-thirds reported problems with health literacy. One-third also reported that they did not know of places within the community that could help people understand health-related paperwork.

Now the Pinellas County 4-H Program plans to hold community forums, continue to collect information, and work with other local youth groups to address this issue.

Harlem Teens Find No Doctor’s Offices

The youth in Harlem recorded the difference in the number of doctor’s offices in three different New York City neighborhoods, each 25 blocks long. Two neighborhoods were located in Harlem and one on the Upper East Side.

They found that in the lower-income Harlem neighborhoods there were no doctor’s offices at all. However in the wealthier neighborhood on the Upper East Side, the youth found more than 100 doctor’s offices. “Poor health is a form of poverty,” said one youth when presenting the work to AED and the IOM.

As a result of their findings, the youth recommended that their community invest more in doctor’s offices and use mobile vans as a strategy for getting better health care to those areas. TRUCE Fitness and Nutrition Center, which is part of the Harlem Children’s Zone, implemented the Harlem mapping project locally.

TRUCE and the Harlem Children’s Zone plan to have groups of youth work with the local health organizations they have identified to provide input on how to make their health materials more accessible to the general public. In addition, the organizations are planning to hold community-wide meetings to discuss the importance of health literacy.

Making a Difference

Within communities there are many players who can help citizens better comprehend and use health information correctly. For example:

*   Adult education classes can add health content to their lessons;

*   Organizations for the elderly can help senior citizens understand their medications and give them tools to remember when to take the medication;

*   Patient advocacy organizations can give people tools to prepare for a doctor’s visit;

*   Public transportation authorities can ensure that bus schedules are available in large print;

*   Local advertising and marketing agencies can volunteer their services to test materials for readability and comprehension. 

AED is finalizing a guide to Health Literacy Community YouthMapping (adapted from its Community YouthMapping Guide and Toolkit) that will outline how other communities can use this process.

For more information contact Raul Ratcliffe or Eric Kilbride.

Community YouthMapping© is copyrighted by the Academy for Educational Development.