Facilitating behavior change with low-literacy patient education materials.
OBJECTIVE
To describe a process for developing low-literacy health education materials that increase knowledge and activate patients toward healthier behaviors.


METHODS
We developed a theoretically informed process for developing educational materials. This process included convening a multidisciplinary creative team, soliciting stakeholder input, identifying key concepts to be communicated, mapping concepts to a behavioral theory, creating a supporting behavioral intervention, designing and refining materials, and assessing efficacy.


RESULTS
We describe the use of this process to develop a diabetes self-management guide.


CONCLUSIONS
Developing low-literacy health education materials that will activate patients toward healthier behaviors requires attention to factors beyond reading level.
Seligman
Hilary K
HK
Division of General Internal Medicine, San Francisco General Hospital, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. hseligman@medsfgh.ucsf.edu
Wallace
Andrea S
AS
DeWalt
Darren A
DA
Schillinger
Dean
D
Arnold
Connie L
CL
Shilliday
Betsy Bryant
BB
Delgadillo
Adriana
A
Bengal
Nikki
N
Davis
Terry C
TC
D003142:Communication; D004522:Educational Status; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012648:Self Care; D012932:Social Facilitation