Health literacy is key to making informed decisions in both clinical care and research, and yet it varies greatly among patients and participants. How can practitioners and researchers do their part to improve communication practices to optimize comprehension?
The "Common Rule" states that "information that is given to the subject or the representative shall be in language understandable to the subject or the representative." Health literacy, defined as the capacity "to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions," is relevant to both clinical care and research. In clinical care, health literacy plays an important role in improving health outcomes. Optimizing health literacy through effective communication with research participants may improve the integrity of the study.
Health literacy is important throughout the course of a clinical research project, from appropriate design and use of informed consent through to determinations about the return of results to subjects. In addition to the existing IRB readability standards that ensure that the consent process fosters subject understanding, new initiatives have been developed to address challenges associated with improving health literacy, including the Clear Communication Index—a health literacy tool created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In this webinar, presenters introduced this tool, as well as the concept of health literacy and strategies for improving readability. The presenters also utilized a case study on the return of research results to illustrate the importance of creating materials with health literacy principles, to improve comprehension among research subjects.
(Presented on October 27, 2015)
What will I learn?
After attending this webinar, you will be able to:
- Define health literacy
- Understand the importance of health literacy in relation to human subjects research, using a case study involving return of results
- Identify key clear communication criteria that uses the CDC Clear Communication Index
- Identify issues pertaining to clarity and health literacy issues in research documents
Who should attend?
This intermediate-level webinar was of interest to clinical researchers, IRB members, chairs, and staff, as well as human research protections program staff and researchers.
Continuing Education
Webinar participants holding the Certified IRB Professional (CIP®) credential may apply 1.5 continuing education credits towards CIP recertification. Learn More »
Access Interval
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