Maternal and Child Health Library

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June 4, 2010

1. PLAN IDENTIFIES NATIONAL GOALS AND STRATEGIES FOR CREATING A HEALTH-LITERATE SOCIETY

National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy seeks to engage organizations, professionals, policymakers, communities, and families in a linked, multisector effort to improve health literacy. The plan was prepared under the leadership of the Health Literacy Workgroup and produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Based on the 2006 Surgeon General's Workshop on Improving Health Literacy, a series of town hall meetings in 2007 and 2008, and feedback from stakeholder organizations in 2009, the plan is the result of work by public- and private-sector organizations and individuals to draw attention to health literacy as a major public health issue. Content includes goals and strategies to support, and help achieve, Healthy People objectives in health literacy and related areas. Many of the strategies highlight actions that particular organizations or professions can take to further the goals. The plan also suggests action steps for individuals and families to take on their own or in collaboration with groups in their communities. The plan is available at http://www.health.gov/communication/HLActionPlan/pdf/Health_Literacy_Action_Plan.pdf

• A total of 417 public school nurses (56 percent) responded to the questionnaire.
• Approximately one-third (34 percent) of public school nurses indicated that their schools expected them to help parents enroll their children in public health insurance programs.
• The perceived benefits identified by 90 percent of school nurses were as follows: keep students healthier (95 percent), reduce the number of students with untreated health problems (95 percent), and reduce school absenteeism (90 percent). The primary barriers were not having enough staff (64 percent) and not having enough time (55 percent).
• Most respondents thought schools should provide parents with access to state-funded health insurance enrollment forms (92 percent), but fewer thought schools should help parents fill out state-funded health insurance enrollment forms (53 percent).
• The majority (58 percent) of school nurses indicated that they personally helped students obtain state-funded health insurance. Only 7 percent reported that their school had received financial support to help students enroll in state-funded health insurance.

• The overall rate of paternal depression between the first trimester and 1 year postpartum was 10.4 percent (compared with recent national data on base rates of depression in men at 4.8 percent).
• There was considerable variability between different time periods, with the 3- to 6-month postpartum period showing the highest rate of paternal depression and the first 3 postpartum months showing the lowest rate.
• U.S. studies reported an average rate of paternal depression at 14.1 percent, and international studies reported an average rate of 8.2 percent.
• Interview-based case definition methods were associated with lower overall prevalence estimates.
• The overall estimate of maternal-paternal depressive symptom correlation was significant.

• Class 1: All-types victims -- individuals with a high probability of being victimized by the four traditional bullying behaviors and a moderately high probability of being victimized by cyber bullying -- 9.7 percent of males and 6.2 percent of females.
• Class 2: Verbal-relational victims -- individuals with a moderately high probability of verbal, social exclusion, and rumor-spreading types of victimization and relatively low probability of physical and cyber victimization -- 28.1 percent of males and 35.1 percent of females.
• Class 3: Non-victims -- individuals with a minimal probability of being victimized by any bullying behavior -- 62.2 percent male, 58.7 percent female.

• Compared to females, males were more likely to be all-types victims.
• In general, the all-types victims reported higher depression, more injuries, and more medicine use for sleeplessness and nervousness than the verbal-relational victims, followed by the nonvictims.