Abstract
BackgroundHealth literacy is an increasingly important topic in both the policy and research agendas of many countries. During the recent 36th Annual Meeting of the North American Primary Care Research Group, the authors led an audio-taped 3-hour forum, "Studying Health Literacy: Developing an International Collaboration," where the current state of health literacy (HL) in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK) was presented and attendees were encouraged to debate a future research agenda.Discussion of Forum ThemesThe debate centred around three distinct themes, including: (1) refining HL definitions and conceptual models, (2) HL measurement and assessment tools, and (3) developing a collaborative international research agenda. The attendees agreed that future research should be theoretically grounded and conceptual models employed in studies should be explicit to allow for international comparisons to be drawn.Summary and Authors ReflectionsThe importance of HL research and its possible contribution to health disparities is becoming increasingly recognised internationally. International collaborations and comparative studies could illuminate some of the possible determinants of disparities, and also possibly provide a vehicle to examine other research questions of interest.
Highlights
Health literacy is an increasingly important topic in both the policy and research agendas of many countries
International collaborations and comparative studies could illuminate some of the possible determinants of disparities, and possibly provide a vehicle to examine other research questions of interest
Author's handwritten notes and the audio recordings were referred to in order to present a summary of what was discussed, and as a result propose a direction for future international research in health literacy
Summary
Health literacy is a topic that has been gaining momentum over the past few years, both in the policy and research agendas of many countries. The attendees represented a range of academic and clinical disciplines, including health service research, nursing, medical and psychology and all had an expressed research interest in Health Literacy, individuals' extent of research experience was not known. Following approval from both the Institutional Review Board of the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine-Knoxville and attendees, the forum was audio-recorded in its entirety to allow the authors to capture all content discussed. Author's handwritten notes and the audio recordings were referred to in order to present a summary of what was discussed, and as a result propose a direction for future international research in health literacy. Content discussed throughout the forum centred around three distinct themes, including: (1) refining health literacy definitions and conceptual models, (2) health literacy measurement and assessment tools, and (3) developing a collaborative international research agenda
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