Health Literacy

The term ‘health literacy’ was first used by SK Simonds in a 1974 paper entitled ‘Health Education as Social Policy’ (Ratzan). However, the concept gained much importance in the year 1998 when the American Medical Association (AMA)  recognized that limited patient literacy affects medical diagnosis and treatment. The AMA  laid down  foundation to raise awareness of health literacy within the health care community.

 

By the year 2000, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, identified that improving the health literacy skills of the nation is a key public health priority. They defined health literacy as ‘the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions’ (Healthy People 2010)

Source: Ratzan,S.C. (2001) Health literacy: communication for the public good. Health Promotion International. 16; 2001; 207–214.
 

Health Literacy is more on the communication and services aspect between a doctor and a patient where librarians are indirectly involved in strengthening health literacy skills.

Health Information Literacy - 

 Similar to information literacy, health information literacy is defined as- 

The U.S Medical Library Association (MLA) gave a working definition of health information literacy (HIL) as “the set of abilities needed to recognize a health information need; identify likely information sources and use them to retrieve relevant information; assess the quality of the information and its applicability to a specific situation; and analyze, understand, and use the information to make good health decisions”.

Here librarians involvement is seen as direct:  (Librarians- Doctors) OR (Librarians-Public)

We guide various communities towards the use of  authentic resources and many more aspects of information literacy. 

When you are not satisfied by your own published abstract, then what do you do it ? Revise and this is what I have done here to the paper- (Brought minor changes)

 Information Literacy, Health Literacy, Health Information Literacy-What are they about?

Presents chronological development of the concept information literacy and its seven components, along with information skill models and the standards. We searched the Google Scholar and found exclusive books, journals, websites, projects, reports, training materials, conferences and guides. The number of papers on the topic is massive, and they pertain to various disciplines like science, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and agriculture. The papers have emanated from various settings such as schools, colleges, universities and hospitals. The studies conducted involved students at various levels of study, researchers, faculty, nurses, therapists, dental students, older adults and so on pertaining to different states, regions, workplaces, etc. This study define and describe the terms information literacy, health literacy, and health information literacy. The research papers of high relevance which are published globally and locally in English language are embraced in the study.

For the benefit of my readers, I have provided little information about the concept Information Literacy-

The term information literacy was coined by Paul G. Zurkowski in the year 1974. 

In the year 1989, the American Library Association (ALA) defined IL - 'To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information'.

 In the US, ACRL laid down information literacy competency standards for higher education (ALA, 2000)

In the UK, the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) created Seven Pillars of Information Literacy Core Model (1999) and revised it in 2011.

Those seven pillars are (An information literate person should be able to identify, asses, plan..)                               

Identify: able to identify a need for information to address the research question

Scope: able to assess current knowledge and identify gaps

Plan: can construct strategies for locating information and data

Gather:can locate and access the information and data they need

Evaluate: can review the research process and compare and evaluate information and data

Manage:can organise information professionally and ethically

Present :present the results of their research, synthesising new and old information and data to create new knowledge