The animated short "How To Think Like a Scientist: H1N1, which I co-developed with Joslyn Levy, has just gone live on the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) website -
http://www.aft.org/topics/h1n1/video.htm
For more information about this video and our use of health literacy principals to create better health messages visit our site
http://understandingswineflu.com
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Mammogram reversal requires science and health literacy
There is no doubt that science will continue to do what it's supposed to do - change as it advances.
And there is also no doubt that science/medical recommendations will change as this occurs.
However, there is no doubt that only a very small number of people have the science literacy required to understand and come to a comfortably informed decision about the new mammography guidelines.
In our book, Advancing Health Literacy: A Framework for Understanding and Action ( Jossey Bass, 2006), we proposed a new ecological model of health literacy where science literacy is one of the critical 4 domains of health literacy:
- · familiarity with fundamental scientific concepts, scientific process
- · some understanding of technology & technical complexity, and
- understanding of scientific uncertainty and that rapid change in the accepted science is possible and likely.
Given that less than 20% of the adults in the US are scientifically literate (NSF, Public Understanding of Science, http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind93/chap7/doc/7d1a93.htm), how likely is it that this new recommendation is going to be accessible and understood?
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