Health Literacy Constructs and Chronic Disease Disparities

April 6, 2022

A growing body of research suggests that low health literacy (LHL) may be an explanatory factor in pathways that generate health disparities. This talk will: 1) describe the difference between two forms of health literacy (individual and public health literacy), 2) share a novel framework that elucidates pathways between social determinants of health, health literacy and health inequities in non-communicable diseases (NCD), and 3) provide examples of health literacy activities embedded within this framework across multiple NCDs.

Dr. Schillinger served as Chief Medical Officer for the Diabetes Prevention and Control Program for California from 2008-13. He previously directed the ambulatory care clinics at SFGH. He co-directs a national course on Medical Care of Vulnerable and Underserved Patients and edits a textbook of the same name. Author of over 300 peer-reviewed scientific articles, he has focused his research on health communication for vulnerable populations, carrying out a number of studies exploring the impact of limited health literacy on prevention and control of diabetes and heart disease, and related interventions to improve both communication and health outcomes. Dr. Schillinger contributed to the 2004 IOM Report on Health Literacy and authored a 2012 IOM Publication defining the attributes of Health Literate Healthcare Organizations.

Dean Schillinger, MD, Professor of Medicine, UCSF
Director, UCSF Health Communications Research Program

Presented by the Investigator Skills Development Unit (ISDU) of the UCSF Research Coordinating Center to Reduce Disparities in Multiple Chronic Diseases (RCC-RD-MCD)