CGEC > Faculty Development > Overview

Health Literacy and Aging: Building Capacity through Faculty Development

Please navigate to the Training Program, the Training Program Sessions, and the Health Literacy Resources by using the labels at the left of this webpage.

Overview:

Many among North Carolina’s diverse populations of older adults are faced with persistent health disparities. Although there are many reasons for these challenges, low patient health literacy is certainly a factor, as is the limited understanding of health literacy by practitioners. Adults with low health literacy have less health-related knowledge, manifest poorer control of their chronic illnesses, are less likely to receive preventive health services, more likely to be hospitalized, and have greater rates of mortality. (DeWalt, Berkman et al. 2004; Sudore, Yaffe et al. 2006) Low health literacy is common among the older adults, including those in North Carolina.

In response, the CGEC is conducting a faculty development program in Health Literacy and Aging, as well as developing a formal curriculum and process for its dissemination. Ten to twelve faculty members will be trained each year. We expect the program to have far-reaching impact on the health of older North Carolinians. This will be accomplished largely through the efforts of trainees to broadly disseminate health literacy principles through their teaching and educational program development and through the changes they make to improve patient care and service systems.

This site provides information about health literacy, health literacy and aging, and also information pertaining to the faculty development program.

--DeWalt DA, Berkman ND et al. (2004). Literacy and health outcomes: a systematic review of the literature. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 19: 1228-1239.

--Sudore RL, Yaffe K, et al. (2006). Limited literacy is associated with mortality in the elderly: the health, aging, and body composition study. Journal of General Internal Medicine 21(8): 806-812.

Read the overview of the program (Word format)

Last updated 5/21/2008.