PMRG has cultivated a Health Literacy Initiative (HLI) to provide today's leaders in healthcare marketing research with the tools and understanding required to address the growing needs of those patients with a variety of health literacy levels.  By providing education, resources, and training, the PMRG Health Literacy Initiative will work to drive change within our industry and at the FDA that ultimately will reach and empower patients to take control of their own health and to better understand their treatments.

Background on Health Literacy Issues:

As healthcare becomes more patient-centric, there is an increasing need to ensure that all patients are able to obtain, process and understand basic materials to make informed decisions about their health.  Did you know that only 12% of adults in the United States have proficient health literacy?¹  The lower the health literacy, the more likely a person is to report they have poor health and forgo health insurance.  For this reason, low health literacy has been linked to poor health outcomes – more hospitalizations, less compliance with medications and less frequent use of preventative services.²  The responsibility for improving health literacy falls upon industry professionals and the PMRG HLI seeks to do just this.

Best Practices In Health Literacy Research:

The Health Literacy Initiative is currently establishing best practices for health literacy research and will be sharing our findings with researchers in upcoming webinars.  If you have expertise in this area and would like to contribute to this effort, please contact or contact Heather Collins at heather@baltimoreresearch.com

Where to Start if Health Literacy is New to You:

• The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services gives a good overview of the facts surrounding low health literacy and outlines the dangerous consequences. http://www.health.gov/communication/literacy/quickguide/default.htm
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides information and tools to improve health literacy and public health. http://www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy/
• Health Literacy Principles Checklist.  Ensure that materials are plain, simple and understood by following as many principles as possible! http://centerforhealthguidance.org/health-literacy-principles-checklist.pdf
• Kara Jacobson and Ruth Parker, participants in the activities of the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Health Literacy, capture 20 years of work in the health literacy arena in a brief discussion paper: “Health Literacy Principles: Guidance for Making Information Understandable, Useful, and Navigable.” www.iom.edu/healthliteracyguidance

Tools for assessing health literacy: http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/quality-patient-safety/quality-resources/tools/literacy/index.html

¹ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.  Quick Guide to Health Literacy: Health Literacy Basics.  Available at http://www.health.gov/communication/literacy/quickguide/factsbasic.htm . Accessed February 24, 2015.

² U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.  Quick Guide to Health Literacy: Health Literacy and Health Outcomes.  Available at http://www.health.gov/communication/literacy/ quickguide/factsliteracy.htm. Accessed February 24, 2015.