Open AccessOnline Health Information and Low-Literacy African Americans
Author(s) -
Mehret S Birru,
Richard A. Steinman
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
jmir. journal of medical internet research/journal of medical internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.446
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1439-4456
pISSN - 1438-8871
DOI - 10.2196/jmir.6.3.e26
Subject(s) - health literacy , the internet , reading (process) , literacy , health equity , health information , low income , gerontology , internet privacy , psychology , medicine , health care , public health , political science , sociology , world wide web , computer science , nursing , socioeconomics , pedagogy , law
African Americans with low incomes and low literacy levels disproportionately suffer poor health outcomes from many preventable diseases. Low functional literacy and low health literacy impede millions of Americans from successfully accessing health information. These problems are compounded for African Americans by cultural insensitivity in health materials. The Internet could become a useful tool for providing accessible health information to low-literacy and low-income African Americans. Optimal health Web sites should include text written at low reading levels and appropriate cultural references. More research is needed to determine how African Americans with low literacy skills access, evaluate, prioritize, and value health information on the Internet.