Community Health Literacy Assessment: A Systematic Framework to Assess Activities, Gaps, Assets, and Opportunities for Health Literacy Improvement

BACKGROUND: The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy makes the case that a wide range of organizations and professionals must work together to improve health information and services to achieve a health literate society. The context and framework for this collaboration and action, however, have yet to be well-articulated. We report on our use of a community health needs assessment model to describe county and state health literacy activities, gaps, assets, and opportunities. This approach combines the public health best practice of learning about communities through systematic assessments and the emerging health literacy best practice of studying organizational behaviors. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITY: A community health literacy assessment was implemented from January 2018 to April 2018. The purpose was to collect information about county and state-level health literacy activities, gaps, assets, and opportunities. We used this information to characterize the status of health literacy in Maryland and establish an initial baseline for county and state strategic planning work and future collaboration. IMPLEMENTATION: An environmental scan of each county in Maryland identified health indicators, community resources, and health organizations or professionals. Organizational representatives participated in interviews about their health literacy work. Interviews were analyzed to identify themes as well as summarize and quantify perspectives by county. We convened a forum, disseminated preliminary findings, and performed member checking to assess agreement with the results. RESULTS: The team interviewed 56 individuals from 49 organizations. Themes of health literacy definitions as well as organizational ranking on the use of health literacy best practices are discussed in this article. Forty public health professionals, including 10 interview participants, attended the forum. Member checking assessed interview participants' agreement with results and interpretations, which were found to be accurate portrayals of their responses. LESSONS LEARNED: Lessons learned include being flexible with the interview approach, performing member checking, and allowing participants to self-define health literacy. Our experience shows a small team can perform a large-scale assessment that provides actionable information at state and county-levels. The results can influence future interventions, inform strategic planning and collaboration, and lead us toward a health literate society. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2019;3(4):e216–e226.] PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY: A systematic community health needs assessment framework was used to collect information about health literacy activities, assets, gaps, and opportunities at the state and county level. Participant feedback showed the team accurately captured the activities, assets, gaps, and opportunities to improve health literacy practices. A needs assessment framework is feasible for describing community health literacy.