Developing Materials to Match the Health Literacy Skills of Older Adults

Hello, I’m Dr. Lynda Anderson, Director of the CDC Healthy Aging Program. There’s a lot we can do to help older adults live longer, more productive and independent lives. As with all of us, older adults benefit from clearly understanding information about their health and the steps they can take to improve their health. However, many older adults have limited health literacy that can be associated with poor health outcomes and increased hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and medication errors.

Public health professionals can make a difference by eliminating jargon and technical language, presenting critical information in engaging and compelling ways, and being more clear about the actions older adults can take to promote their health.

I’m excited about CDC’s new collection of health literacy tools and resources for professionals. They are available on the CDC website and I anticipate you’ll find them useful in helping you communicate more clearly and effectively with older adults.