Understanding Basic Health

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The burdens of diseases such as obesity, cancer, diabetes and AIDS fall disproportionately on the poor. To make matters worse, poor people are more likely than affluent ones to lack the resources and information they need to better manage their health.

A health literacy workshop, held recently at a local public library, was designed to help address that problem.

The event, a “Connect for Health” workshop at the Watha T. Daniel-Shaw Library, was presented by Karyn Pomerantz of the George Washington University School of Public Health. It

was designed to help poor D.C. residents and the organizations that assist them gain access to life-saving information on the Internet.

Health literacy, workshop organizers explained, is “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.”

Easy-to-read and reliable health information in different languages that can help make those decisions is available online. But you have to know where and how to look, Pomerantz explained.

“When I ask what someone uses to find health information on the Internet, most people just say ‘Google’.”

But not all websites are equal, and not all are trustworthy, she stressed.

She urged participants to check health websites for sponsors and sources of funding.

She suggested several reliable health websites, including MedlinePlus.gov, which lists symptoms, treatments, video tutorials, and additional information for thousands of medical conditions in 40 languages, and HealthyRoadsMedia.org which offers information in many languages and formats. But even with strong health literacy, Pomerantz cautioned against relying too heavily on the Internet.

“We encourage people not to diagnose themselves on the Internet,” Pomerantz joked. “It can lead to a whole host of problems.”


Issues |Health, Physical

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