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Health literacy generally refers to the ability of individuals to access and use health information to make appropriate health decisions and maintain basic health. For health and education researchers, the concept is a broad one. It includes whether individuals can read and act upon written health information, as well as whether they possess the speaking skills to communicate their health needs to physicians and the listening skills to understand and act on the instructions they receive.
Studies over the years have repeatedly demonstrated a strong link among literacy, level of education and level of health. Health and learning are closely intertwined and the interaction between them is evident at all ages, from early childhood through to the later stages in life. The equation is a simple one: the higher a person’s education status and ability to learn about health, the better that person’s health.
Researchers and policy-makers in the health and education fields consider health literacy as a critical pathway linking education to health outcomes, as a causal factor in health disparities between different population groups and as a predictor of overall population health.
The results used in this report are derived from health-related literacy tasks that were included in the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (IALSS). This survey contained 191 daily tasks that were judged to measure health-related activities in five domains: health promotion (60 items), health protection (65 items), disease prevention (18 items), health-care and disease management (16 items), and navigation (32 items). Individuals scoring below Level 3 can best be characterized as possessing very limited to restricted literacy proficiencies.
Enhance and maintain health
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The Canadian map below provides researchers and policy-makers with a snapshot of low health-literacy rates in thousands of communities and represents 95% of the country's population. This map is based on a new analysis of data reported in CCL’s first annual State of Learning in Canada report. It shows the percentage of the adult population (ages 16 and older) with health-literacy skills that are considered to be at Level 2 and below, according to the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (IALSS) and information from 2001 Census.
Clearly, health literacy varies considerably throughout the country and within each region. Such information will help health and literacy organizations, health professionals and governments to develop specific practices, programs and policies to improve health literacy—and consequently health outcomes—across Canada.
Click here, or on the image below, for a high-resolution PDF of the map (6 MB).
Over the past 20 years, research has shown a strong link between literacy, education levels and relative health. The evidence clearly shows that the higher a person’s education status and ability to learn about health, the better their health.
This report presents new data for health literacy in Canada and pinpoints where low literacy levels exist. It provides useful background on how health literacy is measured, and will support efforts in areas such as health promotion, health protection, disease prevention and navigating the health-care system. Building on these initial results, CCL is planning to release a second report in 2008, examining:
The data for the local area maps is from the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (IALSS) conducted by Statistics Canada and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the 2001 Canadian Census. The maps were produced using a mapping technique developed by the Canadian Research Institute for Social Policy (CRISP). The CRISP mapping technique estimates a score on an outcome variable for all Canadian citizens, based on the best available information for each individual, and then displays the resulting scores on provincial or local area maps.
The approach uses the 2001 Canadian census data to create a file for each province that includes a “pseudo-record” for every individual in the province, based on the distribution of people by gender and age in each Dissemination-Area (DA). An estimate of a person’s outcome (in this case their “health literacy” score) for all people in the pseudo-record file is estimated using multilevel multiple regression techniques, based on the following data:
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