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Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence Health Literacy Campaign
With funding from Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence, CIK researchers are developing culturally-tailored and context-specific health literacy materials for the management of chronic diseases of West Louisville populations. West Louisville (WL) has a population of 60,749 residents and is made up of nine contiguous neighborhoods—Algonquin, California, Chickasaw, Park DuValle, Park Hill, Parkland, Portland, Russell, and Shawnee. WL residents suffer substantial health disparities, as documented in the Health Equity Report issued by the Center for Health Equity in 2014. These disparities are so pronounced that the average life expectancy for WL residents is seven years less than Louisville Metro residents overall.
As a result of Kentucky’s expansion of Medicaid and pro-active implementation of the Affordable Care Act, many residents who were previously uninsured now have health coverage either through Medicaid or through kynect, Kentucky’s Health Benefits Exchange. Unfortunately, simply having coverage does not confer immediate understanding or competence in how to use the services available. Efforts in health literacy aim to enhance residents’ ability to access available resources to better prevent and manage chronic disease and maintain positive health.
The overall goals of the Bootcamp Translation Health Literacy project are:
1) To improve health literacy regarding three specific health issues among West Louisville residents;
2) To improve health outcomes for residents living with the targeted health issues; and
3) To disseminate the development process and the resulting health literacy materials to similar settings and populations.
The research is designed as a mixed-methods (i.e., quantitative and qualitative) evaluation of both the process of developing health literacy materials and of the outcomes of the materials as an intervention to improve health literacy. The project targets three specific health condition topics: depression, HIV, and asthma. Through the collection of baseline and outcome data, the project will provide critical information about the impact of the chosen health literacy strategies on the population served. For more information about this project, please contact Dr. Ryan Combs at ryan.combs@louisville.edu.
