Working with collaborators from British Columbia, the OHTN’s Applied Epidemiology Unit has released a new report on health literacy, sexual health and gay men.
Health literacy means having the skills to find, understand, evaluate and talk about health information with others. In Canada, gay men were one of the first groups affected by HIV, and they developed ways to prevent HIV based on information about the virus and how it spreads. Because there is now so much more information available about HIV—and the information is available through so many channels—having good health literacy skills has become even more important for gay men.
This new report describes findings from a meeting held in October of 2014 in conjunction with the 10th annual B.C. Gay Men’s Health Summit. The report defines the core competencies of health literacy, explores barriers to health literacy and asks how to improve health literacy.
Download the full report. (7.7mb)
Download the executive summary.
Visit ohtn.on.ca/healthliteracy