Summary: Current Health Promotion Pamphlet

Current Health Promotion Pamphlet: Hand washing to Prevent Flu, Colds, Etc.

Current Health Promotion Pamphlet: Hand washing to Prevent Flu, Colds, Etc.
Health promotion is, “The process of enabling individuals and communities to increase control over the determinants of health and thereby improve their health” (Dawson, & Grill, 2012, p. 101). Empowering individuals to address health risk behaviors and care for themselves is an important responsibility. Health education is necessary to affect and influence the public into undergoing the behavior change necessary into a healthier way of life. Current health promotion pamphlets are an easy, simple, but very effective way of sending the message to its target audience if done correctly.
Twenty two percent of the population is said to possess low levels of health literacy (National Patient Safety Foundation, 2007). “Basic health literacy is defined by the ability to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions” (National Patient Safety Foundation, 2007, n.p.). This is very important in a patient-provider communication. Health promotion strategies are useless if the target audience cannot understand the meaning of the health education. Reading levels of educational materials needs to be appropriate to the health literacy of the target patient population. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level is a readability test commonly used in education. It means the number of years of education needed to understand the text. The health promotion pamphlet on hand washing to prevent flu, colds, and other infections have a reading level of grade four according to the Flesch-Kincaid grade level and an 84% Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score (Readability-Score.Com,
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JourneyWorks. (2013). Hand washing to prevent flu, colds, and other infections (Brochure). Retrieved from http://www.journeyworks.com/prodinfo.asp?number=5437 National Patient Safety Foundation. (2007). Partnership for clear health communication joins forces with the national patient safety foundation. Retrieved from http://www.npsf.org/updates-news-press/press/partnership-for-clear-health-communication-joins-forces-with-the-national-patient-safety-foundation/ Readability-Score.Com. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.readability-score.com/
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