Strengthening Your Health Literacy

Health literacy – how well we can find, understand, and apply information to help us make health decisions – affects many areas of our lives. Reading nutrition labels in the grocery store, following instructions on prescription bottles, being able to tell whether an article shared by a high school acquaintance on social media is accurate – these are just a few of the ways health literacy pops up day-to-day. On this episode, Dr. Heidi Brown of the UW-Madison Department of Ob-Gyn and Jordan Spencer, medical student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences talk about where to find accurate health information, resources for building health literacy skills, and how low health literacy exacerbates preexisting health disparities. Dr. Brown and Jordan recommend MedlinePlus and the MedlinePlus Guide to Healthy Web Surfing as tools to strengthen health literacy. Let us know what health issues you'd like to learn about! Email the Women's Healthcast team with your suggestions.