Healthcare research aims to improve processes and practices that will result in better health outcomes. And researchers are often looking for interventions that provide better ways to prevent, manage or treat health conditions in their studies. When health literacy is integrated throughout the research process researchers enhance their ability to clearly communicate with participants and address a variety of issues that can impact safety and study outcomes.
The use of health literacy interventions is a cross-cutting approach that researchers can use in their studies to improve comprehension, appropriate use of healthcare services, and medication and treatment adherence. People with low health literacy often find it harder to follow instructions on prescription bottles, read appointment slips, ask questions about procedures, follow treatment plans, navigate the healthcare environment and understand consent forms and instructions. In fact, these are many of the behaviors associated with research protocols. Health literacy interventions can be integrated into both therapeutic and preventative study designs to enhance communication and comprehension between researchers and study participants and improve the quality and validity of the research data.
Health Literacy Partners can help researchers identify and remove the health literacy related burdens that participants may experience during the research study process. Then we’ll work with you to customize and implement sustainable health literacy interventions into your research studies that will improve processes, resources and outcomes. The results are promising!