Research Links how Literacy Impacts Health and Wellbeing

SYRACUSE, NY, June 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Health literacy is essential to improving health outcomes and empowering communities to manage their health and wellbeing. Adult education classrooms have long played a critical role in this empowerment process. But there remains an important question: How have adult education programs and instructors responded to new health care realities, like the increased use of digital technologies and more speakers of other languages who are utilizing the health care system?

In a special issue of Adult Literacy Education: The International Journal of Literacy, Language, and Numeracy, researchers studied what is being done to build health literacy among adults with low literacy and language skills.

In one study, researchers reviewed what health literacy interventions were in place across formal and informal educational settings for the growing migrant community worldwide and whether they met that population’s needs. They found that, depending on the location and cause of migration, a lack of standardization among health literacy interventions created limitations when it came to outcomes. From this, the research team created a set of recommendations to improve the planning and reporting of interventions.

In another case study, a team from an adult literacy program in Arizona discusses how it created a mock patient portal that allows adult learners to practice interacting with the health care system digitally and what they learned about the importance of contextualized learning.

“For millions of adults, both in the US and around the globe, the ability to successfully manage their own health care evades them due to low literacy or language skills,” said ProLiteracy President and CEO Mark Vineis. “It’s imperative that adult educators have access to research like this to better understand the needs of adults and to help shape the way they approach instruction to build healthier communities.”

This edition of our journal includes further research about language-based health education, a review of the digital health landscape, and a Forum dialog that considers how we think about “good learners,” “good patients,” and language.

We partner with Rutgers University to publish Adult Literacy Education. The journal editors—Alisa Belzer, Amy Rose, and Heather Brown—are leading researchers in the adult literacy and education field who believe in the importance of research to complement practitioners’ experiences, intuition, and professional learning.

In the research journal, adult literacy practitioners, researchers, funders, and policymakers can find evidence-based information to guide their practice, prompt important discussions, and build awareness.

We publish the free online journal three times per year to share the latest and best research and practices in adult literacy, numeracy, and English language education. Each article in Adult Literacy Education goes through a blind peer-review process to ensure we are publishing the highest quality information that the field can trust and use. By keeping our research free, we ensure that the important information shared in the journal will benefit all adult learners equally.

You can find the new issue of Adult Literacy Education at https://www.proliteracy.org/ALE-Journal. Writers interested in submitting articles for consideration in future issues of the journal can find author guidelines and a submission form on the journal’s webpage.

About ProLiteracy

We are the world’s leader in adult education practice, innovating and building the capacity of literacy programs everywhere—from small community-based organizations to large adult education programs and institutions. We serve over 5,000 adult literacy programs annually and work with partners in 28 countries worldwide. By providing comprehensive training and professional learning, accessible research, grant funding, and leading-edge digital and print learning resources through New Readers Press, we advocate for and unleash the power of literacy to transform lives.

Contact: Allison Bleyler McDonald
amcdonald@proliteracy.org
1-888-528-2224

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