Celebrating Public Health

CPHA Social Networks

Home » Celebrating Public Health » Scrapbook » 2007/2008: National Symposium on Health Literacy

Browse by Decade

2007/2008: National Symposium on Health Literacy

CPHA Health Digest, Vol. 31, No. 4, Winter 2007/2008

The Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) and the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health (NCCDH) sponsored a National Symposium on Health Literacy, January 9 and 10, 2008 in Ottawa.

To achieve the symposium’s main goal of engaging key representatives of health and public health in the development of a pan-Canadian health literacy strategy, over 60 people from across the country came together to discuss and debate how we can become a world leader in population health literacy.

Participants concisely defined health literacy as “the skills required to enable access, understanding and use of information for health.” Irving Rootman, Co-Chair of the CPHA’s Expert Panel on Health Literacy, described the Panel’s information gathering since 2006 and its key conclusions.

Donald Nutbeam, from the University of Sydney, Australia, explained why health literacy is a useful public health concept. He described progress in developing measures of health-related literacy and research linking poor health-related literacy with a range of clinical outcomes. Prof. Nutbeam noted that health literacy is fundamentally dependent upon levels of basic literacy and encouraged practitioners to incorporate more personal and community-based educational outreach and adult learning principles in health promotion.

Symposium participants defined seven strategic priorities for improving health literacy in Canada. These will be released in March 2008, along with A Vision for a Health Literate Canada, the report of the Expert Panel on Health Literacy. CPHA and NCCDH’s National Symposium on Health Literacy helped create and foster linkages among researchers, policy makers and the health and public health communities, while raising awareness about the opportunities to raise health literacy and improve health outcomes in Canada. For further information about health literacy, the symposium and the Expert Panel’s report please visit www.cpha.ca.