Social marketing meets health literacy: Innovative improvement of health care providers' comfort with patient interaction.

OBJECTIVE: It is essential to train health care providers to deliver care sensitive to the needs of diverse individuals with varying degrees of health literacy. We aimed to evaluate an innovative, theory-based, educational intervention involving social marketing and health literacy.
METHODS: In 2006 at a large medical school, all first-year students were exposed to the intervention. They completed pre- and post-test anonymous surveys including demographic data, covariates, and key outcome variables. Paired t-tests and multiple linear regression were used to evaluate the intervention and to determine independent associations among the key outcome variables.
RESULTS: Post-intervention scores were significantly higher than pre-intervention scores for social marketing (3.31 versus 1.90, p<0.001), health literacy (3.41 versus 2.98, p<0.001), and comfort in brochure development (3.11 versus 2.52, p<0.001) (N=83). After controlling for demographic and covariate data, health literacy and comfort in brochure development were independent predictors of comfort interacting with diverse populations.
CONCLUSION: A brief intervention involving social marketing and health literacy can improve skills that improve medical students' comfort with patients of diverse backgrounds. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Health care providers can be taught educational principles and skills involved in developing effective patient education materials. These skills may improve providers' comfort with direct patient interaction.