Abstract
Health literacy is critical to enable individuals the capacity to obtain, process, and understand information to make informed health decisions, advocate for themselves and family members, and to activate collaboration in sharing responsibility for health decisions and perform self-management behaviors to help improve their quality of life. This is a particular challenge in disadvantaged groups such as the American Indian (AI) population. The purpose of this Community Based Participatory Research study was to foster university-community collaborations to develop a health literacy/self-advocacy training curriculum for laypersons in AI communities and deliver the training curriculum via classroom integration in community adult education programs. The target population for this program was adult learners in AI tribal communities across South Dakota. A committee consisting of representatives from the community and health science content experts from the university developed a four-module curriculum. The curriculum was modified following feedback from the local adult educators who, following training, then implemented the curriculum into their programs. Results suggest our heuristic health education approach to promote positive health behaviors among the AI population may be viable. By utilizing adult education specialists to deliver the curriculum to adults with educational barriers, we combined the content expertise of university health science professionals with the specialized expertise of community-based adult educators to provide the education to AI students in a familiar environment.
Highlights
Health literacy which is essential for accessing and using health care services, managing chronic conditions, and maintaining health and wellness has come to the forefront as a major public health issue
Studies have shown that people with limited health literacy skills report poorer health status, are more likely to be hospitalized and have bad disease outcomes, and have a greater likelihood of medication errors due to a lack of understanding of medical labels and instructions (Berkman, Sheridan, Donahue, Halpem, & Crotty, 2011; Bennett, Chen, Soroui, & White, 2009; Nutbeam, 2008)
In South Dakota, Native American adults reported a higher incidence of chronic conditions, lower self-perceived quality of physical health, and more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) compared to White adults (Moon, Roh, Yeon-Shim, & Goins, 2015)
Summary
Health literacy which is essential for accessing and using health care services, managing chronic conditions, and maintaining health and wellness has come to the forefront as a major public health issue. Studies have shown that people with limited health literacy skills report poorer health status, are more likely to be hospitalized and have bad disease outcomes, and have a greater likelihood of medication errors due to a lack of understanding of medical labels and instructions (Berkman, Sheridan, Donahue, Halpem, & Crotty, 2011; Bennett, Chen, Soroui, & White, 2009; Nutbeam, 2008) They are more likely to utilize treatment services instead of preventative care (HHS, 2010). A need exists to devise sustainable health literacy programs through collaborative efforts between tribal community partners and program planners/researchers The purpose of this project was to foster university and community partnerships to develop a health literacy/self-advocacy training curriculum for laypersons in tribal communities and to deliver training curriculum via classroom integration in pilot community adult education programs. SDALL is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to providing professional development opportunities to adult educators in South Dakota to enhance the learning opportunities for adult education students
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