Improving health literacy: health sciences library case studies

University of Utah has created various partnerships to improve health literacy and health outcomes among patient populations, employees and community members. Health sciences librarians have been key members of these partnerships. This paper aims to describe and share several of these partnerships, including training programs, research efforts and advocacy initiatives, to encourage others to engage in similar activities.

Case studies include outreach projects and partnerships to foster health literacy and promote healthy living such as: highly visible information resource provision and associated outreach for patients and families; community health fairs; research on providing point-of-need information for vulnerable community populations; health literacy awareness and resources for professionals; health literacy education for interprofessional students; and a competition for interprofessional students to create health videos to address a variety of topics in multiple languages.

Partnerships and outreach efforts lead to improved awareness by institutional personnel of the importance of health literacy. Research on using health literacy to empower patients and increase patient satisfaction can demonstrate how to lower institutional costs and improve guideline compliance, as well out health outcomes.

Librarians’ instructional skills create personal health educational content for patients and professionals; engaging colleagues to address health literacy lowers health care costs, institutional costs and increases patient compliance and satisfaction.