Full course description
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines public health as “the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private communities, and individuals.” A public health approach to health literacy considers how to bring equity to health information and communication, considering that low health literacy is common for many groups of people.
- Lesson 1: You’ll learn which groups of people are most likely to have low health literacy, and why low health literacy is a public health risk factor. You’ll learn how low health literacy affects public health outcomes. You’ll also learn about some public health methods to collect data on health literacy needs.
- Lesson 2: You’ll learn about public health approaches for understanding which groups have low health literacy. You learn about public health approaches for helping groups with low health literacy. You’ll also learn about the challenges of evaluating public health literacy initiatives.
- Lesson 3: You’ll learn how accurate, accessible, and actionable health and safety information supports health literacy. You’ll learn how to identify the characteristics and benefits of this type of information—and you’ll also learn how to use those attributes to develop quality content. Finally, you’ll learn how to create a review process to ensure health and safety information is accurate, accessible, and actionable.
- Lesson 4: You’ll learn why and how to use plain language in public health information and health behavior recommendations. You’ll also learn how to test the materials you’ve developed with your intended audience.
- Lesson 5: You’ll learn about some terms that relate to high-risk situations in public health. You’ll learn about health literacy challenges posed by high-risk situations. You’ll also learn how to address these challenges by making information about high-risk situations easy to find, understand, and use.
- Lesson 6: You’ll learn about community-based public health initiatives—and their link to health literacy. You’ll learn about community health literacy initiatives. You’ll also learn how to involve community members at each phase of a community health literacy initiative.
- Lesson 7: You’ll learn what health literacy advocacy means. You’ll also learn how to advocate for health literacy at 5 levels: 1) individual; 2) group; 3) organization; 4) coalition; and 5) policy.
- Lesson 8: You’ll learn about behavioral and environmental factors that help us stay well and prevent and manage chronic disease. You’ll look at some examples of programs that do the same. You’ll also learn how to promote health literacy through these programs.
Complete all eight lessons and pass the summative exam to earn your Public Health digital credential.
This course takes approximately 8 hours to complete.