Avera Health

To maintain their own health and the health of their families and communities, consumers rely heavily on the health information that is available to them. This information is at the core of the partnerships that patients and their families forge with today's complex modern health systems. This information may be provided in a variety of forms--ranging from a discussion between a patient and a health care provider to a health promotion advertisement, a consent form, or one of many other forms of health communication common in our society. Yet millions of Americans cannot understand or act upon this information. To address this problem, the field of health literacy brings together research and practice from diverse fields including education, health services, and social and cultural sciences, and the many organizations whose actions can improve or impede health literacy. "Health Literacy: Prescription to End Confusion examines the body of knowledge that applies to the field of health literacy and recommends actions to promote a health literate society. By examining the extent of limited health literacy and the ways to improve it, we can improve the health of individuals and populations.

As an indicator of population health, helath expectancy allows us to address the important question of whether or not we are exchanging longer life for poorer health - extending the quantity of life at the expense of quality. This book explains how to define and measure health and morbidity and how to combine these measurements with mortality to produce comparable health expectancies in order to address this key question. Sections include: the concepts behind health expectancy and how they have evolved, methods of calculating health expectancies, comparisons of the health of the world's countries at different stages of demographic transition and the relevance of health expectancies to health policy."Determining Health Expectancies" is built on ten years of work of REVES (Reseau Esperance de Vie en Sante/ Network on Health Expectancy). Researchers, clinicians, demographers and health planners will find it a well referenced coherent text for developing and evaluating methods of calculation and furthering the use of health expectancy as a tool of health planning.