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Twice in recent times, the federal government mailed critical health-related information to every household in the United States. The mailings, the 1988 brochure Understanding AIDS and the 2001 postcard A Message to Americans, were designed to provide the general public with important information about needed action. This paper compares the development process undertaken for each mailing. The authors assess content and format in light of communication principles and the functional literacy skills of average adults. The authors, noting that the reading grade level of the postcard exceeds the reading ability of the average adult, recommend that plain language guidelines be combined with health and risk communication principles in all future efforts to alert the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to describe health literacy in the last decade have helped us define the issue and recognize that our public's skills and abilities are not adequate for successfully navigating the growing demands and complexity of healthcare. There have been significant developments in health literacy over the last decade, with milestones of progress. Much of the work done in the 1990s focused on defining health literacy, initially measuring its prevalence and subsequently looking at its associations. Since then, health literacy has grown from an issue of an under-recognized “silent epidemic” to an issue of health policy and reform. Ideas and objectives proposed have actually been adopted in recent years, with significant policy developments. This article recognizes many achievements and milestones while developing recommendations for implementation in the decade ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the digital divide remains a special problem in health care, providers' reluctance to refer patients to the Internet is an equally important problem. The Bridging the Digital Divide Project: Your Access to Cancer Information was designed with two target audiences in mind—consumers and health care providers. A total of 256 providers from varied health care settings enrolled in workshops over a 10-month period (2001–2002). Results suggest differences in awareness and use of on-line cancer information among providers and confirm that many providers need to become more comfortable with referring patients to on-line information. At completion of the workshops, all participants reported an increased awareness of cancer information websites, increased confidence in making judgments about the reliability and appropriateness of the sites, an increased willingness to discuss Internet information sources with patients and their family members, and an increased awareness of and intention to use the CIS. Providers from the community hospital were more likely than other groups to report that what they had learned about the Internet was helpful and that their comfort level using the Internet had increased. Partnerships between providers and the CIS may help to further increase this comfort level, ultimately benefiting cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]