Page 44 - Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

Health Literacy, eHealth, and Communication: Putting the Consumer First: Workshop Summary

3

Outcomes and Challenges of
eHealth Approaches:

Panel 1

INTERNET APPROACHES FOR eHEALTH IN LOW-LITERACy
AND LIMITED-ENgLISH-PROFICIENCy POPuLATIONS

Rita Kukafka, Dr.P.H., M.A.
Columbia Uniersity, Mailman School of Public Health

The Harlem Health Promotion Center (HHPC) is one of the 33 Pre-
vention Research Centers funded by the Centers for Disease Control and
1
Prevention to conduct applied research into disease prevention. These
research centers serve as a bridge between science and practice, and
between academia and vulnerable communities, working with commu-
nities to identify areas of concern and to develop practical strategies to
address these concerns.
Since 2004 the HHPC has been using the methods of participatory
2
action research to develop the Digital Partners in Health Project, a health
portal designed to provide culturally-relevant health information and
decision support to consumers with low literacy. Building the project
required information about how people of color use technology and seek
health information. Unfortunately, there is very little community-level

1 Prevention Research Centers are “a network of academic researchers, public health
agencies, and community members that conducts applied research in disease prevention
and control” (CDC, 2008).
2 “Participatory action research (PAR) is a method of research where creating a positive
social change is the predominant driving force” (Seymour-Rolls and Hughes, 2000).

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