Assessing Health Education Materials: clearing the way to easy-to-read health materials

Why is it important to assess health education materials? What types of health education assessment tools are available? Get an overview on assessing health materials, and learn how the National Library of Medicine uses a health education materials assessment tool to figure out if health education materials are easy-to-read. Try out the tool out on your own, then download the free NNLM Health Literacy Playbook, checklists and other health literacy resources.  

The class is fully online and asynchronous, which means you’ll work at your own pace until you finish. Content is presented through three modules and activities for practice and takes about 2 hours to complete. 

Class sections

  1. The why and how of assessing health education materials
  2. Evidence-based assessment tools
  3. Using the NLM assessment tool

This presentation addresses improving health literacy, by including information about the NLM/NIH resource NLM’s MedlinePlus Health Education Materials Assessment Tool.

Objectives

Upon completion of this class, students will be able to:

  • Explain the benefits of assessing health education materials 
  • Identify the key elements, differences, and similarities of 4 health education material assessment tools:  Clear Communications Index (CCI), Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM), Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT), and NLM’s Health Education Materials Assessment Tool (HEMAT).
  • Use the NLM's HEMAT to evaluate health education materials. 
Class Length

2 hours