Public Health Literacy
Five faculty members and one doctoral candidate, representing three schools, began meeting in the fall of 2006 to analyze and develop the concept of public health literacy. They received funding from the Center for Ethics and from the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society to pursue the following three projects.

 

Project #1: Co-authoring an article

Over the summer of 2007, the group co-authored an article entitled, “Public Health Literacy Defined.” The article, which is currently under review, expands upon the concept of health literacy by taking into account the complex social, ecological, and systemic forces affecting health and well-being. 

 

Project #2: Interviewing groups of undergraduates

Several members of the “Public Health Literacy” group have been meeting with Vanderbilt undergraduates in a series of focus groups in order to gather information about the student population’s understanding of public health and public health issues. The transcripts of these conversations are currently being coded. Assisting on this project are Laurel Lunn, a Peabody masters student in Community Development Action and Morgan Chatman, a Peabody senior majoring in MHS.

 

Project #3: Developing a measure

Several members of the “Public Health Literacy” group are working on developing a measure that would allow us to assess an individual’s level of public health literacy. In addition to Ms. Chatman, assisting on this project are Professors Russell Rothman, an expert in the measurement of health literacy and numeracy, and Martha Conrad, a community health nurse with a masters in public health.

 

The members of the Public Health Literacy group are: Kimberly D. Bess, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Human and Organizational Development, Peabody College; David L. Boyd, PhD, Associate Professor, Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, A&S; Darcy A. Freedman, MPH, graduate student, Department of Human and Organizational Development, Peabody College; Arleen M. Tuchman, PhD, Professor of History and Director, Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, A&S; Holly A. Tucker, PhD, Associate Professor of French and Associate Director, Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, A&S; Kenneth A. Wallston, PhD, Professor of Psychology, School of Nursing.