Adult Basic Educator's Role in Eliminating Health Illiteracy Using Adult Learning Methods to Assist in Eliminating a Public Health Threat and Social Inequalit

The Institute of Medicine declares health literacy as an individual's ability to obtain process and understand basic health information to make appropriate health related decisions. In the United States today poor health literacy is widespread afflicting more than 90 million people and considered a public health threat, costing millions of dollars in healthcare costs and many unnecessary deaths. The majority of the individuals who suffer from poor health literacy consist of adults with English as a second language, persons with less than a high school education, anyone with a low socio-economic status, Latino and African Americans and the elderly. Obviously a social injustice that is inequitable. This position paper explores the need for further development of assessment tools and teaching methods to combat this social ill and how the adult basic educator plays a significant role using adult learning theories to assist the healthcare community and the marginalized communities discussed.