3. CPH Domain 2: Health Literacy and Communication Plans
After this lesson you can
- Define personal and organizational health literacy as Healthy People 2030 states them
- Apply plain language, teach-back, the universal precautions approach and the CDC Clear Communication Index
- Explain the limits of readability formulas and why audience understanding is the standard
- Build a communication plan from situation analysis through evaluation indicators
- Distinguish tailoring from targeting and gain frames from loss frames
- Present one finding for lay, professional and decision-maker audiences
The first of two lessons on Domain 2, Communication. It covers professional communication, communication needs and gap assessment, health literacy and its tools, building a ten-element communication plan, and translating data for different audiences.
Questions and answers
Questions a learner would ask about this lesson. Think through your own answer before you open each one.
- What is the difference between personal and organizational health literacy?
Show answer
Healthy People 2030 defines personal health literacy as the degree to which individuals can find, understand and use information and services to inform health decisions and actions for themselves and others. Organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to do the same. The subject of the second definition is the organization, and the word "equitably" is part of it.
- Is writing at a sixth-grade reading level the right answer for health materials?
Show answer
Not on its own. Readability formulas such as Flesch-Kincaid and SMOG estimate a grade level from word and sentence length, but they ignore layout, culture, context and numeracy. The lesson's best answer is that materials must be accessible and understandable to the target audience, and the sixth-grade option is the distractor.
- What goes into a complete communication plan?
Show answer
The course teaches ten elements: situation analysis, SMART objectives, audiences, key messages, messengers, channels, materials, timeline, budget and evaluation indicators. The plan is built from the gap analysis. The element candidates most often forget is evaluation, and a plan without evaluation indicators is incomplete.
- What is the difference between tailoring and targeting?
Show answer
Tailoring works at the individual level, built from that person's own data such as survey answers or records. Targeting works at the group level, built for a defined audience segment. Tailoring costs more per person and usually performs better.
- How should the same finding be presented to different audiences?
Show answer
The finding never changes; the emphasis and the length do. Lay audiences get plain words, a person-sized comparison and what to do. Professionals get the measure, denominator, time period, method and limitations, and decision makers get the so-what, the cost, the options and the ask.
Practice quiz
- Question 1Which three verbs anchor the Healthy People 2030 definition of personal health literacy?
- Question 2A health department audits its signage, forms and phone menus to see whether residents can find and use its services. This work addresses:
- Question 3A draft fact sheet scores at a sixth-grade level on a readability formula. What is the best next step?
- Question 4A clinic uses plain language in every handout and teach-back with every patient instead of screening patients for literacy first. This is called:
- Question 5According to the lesson's numeracy guidance, which way of stating a risk is easiest for most readers?
- Question 6A campaign builds one set of Spanish-language messages for Spanish-speaking adults over 40 in one neighborhood. This is an example of:
- Question 7Based on the tendency the lesson describes, which message frame is generally better suited to promoting cancer screening?
- Question 8A brochure is translated into Spanish, a second translator renders it back into English, and the differences are reconciled. What has been done?
- Question 9Which of the following is an outcome indicator for a communication plan, rather than a process indicator?
- Question 10When briefing county decision makers on a new finding, what should come first?
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CPH Exam Pathway is an independent course produced by Subthesis for educational purposes. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE), and completing it does not confer certification. Confirm fees, eligibility, and exam rules against the current NBPHE candidate handbook.