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Events
Health Literacy and Older Adults:
Are our Seniors e-Literate?
Date: Thursday, April 9
Place: S342, School of Nursing
Glen Cameron, PhD; School of Journalism
Paula Hunt, School of Journalism
Richelle Koopman, MD, MS; School of Medicine
The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that adults 65 and older have lower health literacy scores than all other age groups surveyed. Only 3 percent were rated proficient. Low scores suggest older adults have trouble understanding health information and navigating a complicated health care system. More than 80 percent of this group has at least one chronic health condition, and a lack of skills can lead to asking the wrong questions, misunderstanding a care provider’s directions and having an unrealistic view of health and disease.
Glen Cameron and Paula Hunt will discuss the Health Communication Research Center’s efforts to improve communication between the health care community and the public through projects such as Homelink, a partnership with the Center on Aging to develop an Internet-based news, advertising, social network, patient monitoring and health records storage platform designed for the elderly, their family caregivers and health professionals. Richelle Koopman, who is also a member of the Homelink team, will share her research on patient readiness to use Internet health resources.
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