Health literacy chronic disease network

Health literacy is recognised as a key determinant of health, independently associated with chronic disease morbidity and mortality. Adults with lower health literacy also have poorer outcomes on a wide range of modifiable factors along the pathway to good health. Our vision is to develop a coordinated research strategy to  provide real world evidence based soluations to improve chronic disease outcomes for lower literacy adults for application in developed and LMIC countries, and for indigenous and migrant populations.

The Health Literacy Chronic Disease Network is a multidisciplinary, international research network which aims to develop research partnerships to improve the management of chronic disease in developed and low and middle income countries (LMIC) for adults with lower literacy.

The network is supported by the Worldwide Universities Network and the Charles Perkins Centre. The Network targets national and international health priorities in chronic disease including Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander and migrant communities.

It seeks to develop and test sustainable interventions for use in complex health, education and social systems to mitigate the impact of poor health literacy on health outcomes. The group brings together Australian and international researchers from diverse disciplines, including Public Health, Psychology, Education, Pharmacy, Indigenous Health, Medicine, and Media and Communications. It includes key statutory and non-statutory stakeholders to ensure research is relevant to policy and practice and health consumers.

This research will improve health outcomes in chronic disease for adults with lower health literacy. Despite a large body of research documenting the relationship between health literacy and health outcomes there is little high quality intervention research to guide strategies to mitigate its impact on health. This network produces high quality multidisciplinary research to provide practical evidence based soluations address this important problem. 

• Professor Parisa Aslani
• Professor Phyllis Butow
• Dr Haryana Dhillon
• Associate Professor James Gillespie
• Dr Jesse Jansen
• Associate Professor Ilona Juraskova
• Professor Judy Kay
• Professor Kirsten McCaffery (Project Node Leader)
• Professor Lyndal Trevena
• Professor Angela Webster
• Professor Don Nutbeam