Institute for Healthcare Advancement Honors Three for Excellence in Low Literacy Research, Programs and Publications at National Conference in Irvine, Calif.

LA HABRA, CA--(Marketwire - May 7, 2009) - The Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) presented three awards today for outstanding achievements in health literacy at its Eighth Annual Health Literacy Conference, "Health Literacy: Bridging Research and Practice," held at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine, Calif.

The conference was attended by more than 300 professionals working in healthcare or health literacy, health educators, and individuals with an interest in literacy as it relates to healthcare challenges.

The IHA, a non-profit health care organization and a leader in health literacy with its educational conference and easy to read books, reviewed more than 80 submissions from some of the nation's foremost health literacy authorities and researchers to select the winners in the categories of Research, Innovative Programs, and Published Materials.

The winners of the three 2009 IHA Health Literacy Awards were:

Research

Stacy Cooper Bailey, MPH

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

"The Availability of Spanish Prescription Labels: A Multistate Survey"

This study was a follow-up to earlier work identifying health literacy concerns with prescription drug labeling. Stacy Bailey initiated a national survey to examine whether community pharmacies had the ability to provide adequate translations (Spanish) of prescription medication information, including the container label and supplemental materials. This study showed that 56% of community pharmacies have limited or no capability to provide Spanish prescription labeling for their patients, including 44% of pharmacies where more than 25% of the population was Latino.

Innovative Program

Ariella Herman, Ph.D

UCLA Anderson School of Management

"UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Institute"

Working with Head Start agencies, the Health Care Institute at UCLA Anderson uses a proprietary, strategic training methodology and an IHA publication, "What To Do When Your Child Gets Sick," to empower families to be proactive in taking care of their families' healthcare needs. The program has trained more than 14,000 families. Dr. Herman's research showed that ER or clinician office visits dropped by 58% and 42%, respectively, as parents were trained to treat their children at home using a text written at a 3rd grade reading level.

Published Materials

Health Dialog

"Healthy Living Dialog Weight Loss Toolkit"

The Healthy Living Dialog Weight Loss toolkit is designed to provide information and support to those participating in Health Dialog's telephone-based weight loss program. This toolkit is a complete redesign and rewrite of the previous toolkit used for this program. The new updated toolkit improved health literacy, increased personalization, eliminated "judgment" language, and created a more logical organization. It is an example of how improving the health literacy and ease-of-use of written materials can enhance the delivery of health and wellness programs.

Low health literacy is a problem that plagues 90 million Americans who have basic or below basic health literacy skills, which is defined as the ability to read, understand, and act on health information to make appropriate decisions. These decisions include understanding how to take your medicine, prepare for a medical test, or care for yourself or a loved one's chronic illness, such as diabetes, asthma, arthritis, heart disease, high blood pressure or cancer.

IHA is a La Habra-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to empowering people to better health. It is nationally recognized for its efforts in health literacy and provides healthcare information through its various publishing efforts, the Internet, and its renowned local and national education programs. The organization is headquartered at 501 S. Idaho St., La Habra, CA 90631; 1-800-434-4633. For more information, go to the IHA website at www.iha4health.org.

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