What To Do When Your Child Gets Sick Summary

Method
Participants
Participants that were included in this study were English and Spanish speaking parents who lived in Rutherford County, TN. These parents attended a free health literacy training at a Head Start and Title-I elementary school where their child attended (n = __ parents, n = __ children). Training took place at two separate locations. Students at Middle Tennessee State University participated as trained instructors’ as part of a service learning course and engaged in administering the REALM-SF test to screen participant health literacy and teach how to utilize the book, What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick, which is a easy to read low literacy medical reference guide. These families are low income at risk populations that are

The parents were given What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick, which written Gloria G. Mayer, RN, and Ann Kuklierus, RN (2004) as a low literacy medical reference guide to parents. This health book is an easy-to-read self-help book published by burses at the Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA; Mayer & Kuklierus, 2004). This book is made for readers with low health literacy written at a third grade reading level available in English as well as Spanish. It offers parents easy to understand information on common childhood medical problems. The children were given Happy, Healthy Ajay!, which is written by Stuart J. Murphy. This book was designed for children to learn healthy habits about nutrition and staying active through a visual and educational way. Head Start parents and children were educated through both English and Spanish speaking students on how to properly manage health care needs to decrease in ER visits and doctor visits through the use of these books by adding interactive activities, questionnaires, and hands on

Training was conducted at a third-grade reading level and was offered in both English and Spanish to parents. Students administered the test in oral and written form to the participants. Informed consent was taken in this study before administering the exam to the sample group. The data was gathered through a shortened, validated health literacy test named REALM-SF during registration. Participant’s health literacy level was determined through the REALM-SF sheet where parents read aloud the provided medical dictionary word to the interviewer. Following the pronunciation, the interviewer would then check off whether the word was correct, incorrect or mispronounced. The recorded number of overall correctly pronounced words then determined the participant’s health literacy reading level. If participants missed more than three items, an instructor will be assigned to help them complete paperwork. This assessment tool takes about 2-3 minutes to administer which is a fast amount of time to effectively determine an individual's health literacy. The health content that parents were educated in was based on use of the health book, What to Do When Your Child Gets Sick, that was also accompanied with activities developed by the research