Health Literacy Tools: Improving Use of Health Information

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the use of technology among older adults with 43% of older adults using technology to stay healthy. The increased use of smart phones helps older adults track their health information and provides educational resources. The Healthy People 2030 initiative includes the goal to decrease reports of poor communication between clients and their providers while also increasing the client’s involvement in health-related decision-making. This initiative, along with the recent changes to the Medicare Part B fee schedule allows for remote therapeutic monitoring and opens the door for the use of Mobile Phone Applications to improve older adult health communication.Nutbeam (2000) model identifies that health promotion actions improve health literacy, health behaviors and outcomes. Parker and Ratzan (2010) identify that health literacy is a personal skill mediated by complexity of situational demands. As such, health literacy frameworks may be utilized to guide application selection and enhance the use of remote therapeutic monitoring. The purpose of this theory poster is to explore how to choose remote therapeutic monitoring technology that apply concepts of Health Promotion, Person-Environment, and Health Literacy frameworks for older adults.Physical therapists are shifting their practice to emphasize wellbeing through health promotion education, especially in regard to fall and pain education. Health promotion and health literacy research show that self-efficacy is a factor in the success or failure of chronic disease self-management. Personalized ehealth literacy strategies may be utilized to empower patients, improve rapport with providers, and improve health outcomes. Functional health literacy describes basic skills to obtain health information and interactive health literacy describes the ability to extract information and meaning from communication. Higher levels of health literacy may be needed for health promotion and engagement. The use of Health Literacy Frameworks and an Outcomes Model for Health Promotion may improve the knowledge translation needed for pain and fall prevention when working with Physical Therapists.Clients who have access to health management information such as preventing falls or understanding pain may improve their mobility and successfully increase their social engagement in the community. Mobile applications and smart phone use allow clients to more readily access this information remotely from their providers. However, now that many health-related mobile applications and devices exist, it is important for providers to understand how to find individualized applications and that provide clear directions to aid in client navigation. When utilized properly, mobile applications and remote monitoring that are theory based may increase accessibility and adherence to care.