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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Visuals, such as pictures, drawings, charts, graphs and diagrams, can be effective tools for communicating health information. Visuals can make the presentation of complex information easier to comprehend and more attractive. They can also reinforce written or spoken health messages.
Visual communication can benefit all audiences, especially people with lower literacy and numeracy skills. Remember, though, that visuals can't speak for themselves. People can interpret visuals, just as they do words, in different ways. Choose visuals that support the main message and have clear headings, labels, and captions.

Below, you will find sources for free health-related images in the public domain. You will also find resources that will help you make decisions about

Choosing images that effectively communicate your message

Creating visual displays your audience will understand

Sources of Health-Related Images in the Public Domain

Decision-Making Resources for Choosing Images and Creating Visual Displays

Do No Harm Guide: Applying Equity Awareness in Data Visualizationpdf icon external icon (Urban Institute 2021)
This resource offers a set of guidelines for presenting data through a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. It helps data communicators and other data practitioners see how choices made about colors, shapes, words, and representations in data analyses and visualizations can affect how people perceive the results, how change might be implemented, and how that change will impact different people and communities.

Picture This!external icon [National Institutes of Health (NIH) 2021)]
This NIH resource provides suggestions on selecting or developing images (drawings, illustrations, charts, maps, or animations) to accompany your text (or voice-over in video) to achieve a desired outcome.

Visualizing Healthexternal icon (University of Michigan 2014)
The University of Michigan describes Visualizing Health as a scientifically vetted style guide for communicating health data. The site contains 54 examples of tested data visualizations distributed via a Creative Commons license. This allows you to adapt them for your own objectives.

Making Data Talkpdf icon external icon (NIH National Cancer Institute 2011)
This workbook is intended to help you select and communicate quantitative data in ways lay audiences can understand.

Teaching Patients with Low Literacy Skillsexternal icon (Doak, Doak, and Root 1996)
This free downloadable book is considered a classic text in health literacy. Chapter 7, Visuals and How to Use Them, identifies the special needs of poor readers and provides guidance to make visuals responsive to those needs.

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Visual Communication Resources for Health-Related Materials

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Visuals, such as pictures, drawings, charts, graphs and diagrams, can be effective tools for communicating health information. Find free health-related images in the public domain and resources that will help you create visual displays.

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Strategies to improve health literacy in the elderly

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Strategies to improve health literacy in the elderly

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Older adults have more chronic illnesses resulting in the use of more health care services than other segments of the population. They face unique issues related to physical and cognitive functioning that can make it difficult for them to find and use appropriate health information. Cognitive changes, issues with hearing and vision, and social determinants such as disconnect due to issues with utilizing technology, issues in reliable transportation, mobility, and access to health care, and loss of autonomy all contribute to poor health literacy in the elderly.

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-Incorrect use of medication

-Poor treatment regimen and execution

-Injury, infection, and poor disease management

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Health Teaching Older Adults with Low Vision

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Health Teaching Older Adults with Low Vision

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By 2060, almost a quarter of the U.S. population will be age 65 or older. Healthy People 2030 focuses on reducing health problems and improving quality of life for older adults.

Older adults are at higher risk for chronic health problems like diabetes, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer's disease. In addition, 1 in 3 older adults fall each year, and falls are a leading cause of injury for this age group. Physical activity can help older adults prevent both chronic disease and fall-related injuries.

Older adults are also more likely to go to the hospital for some infectious diseases - including pneumonia, which is a leading cause of death for this age group. Making sure older adults get preventive care, including vaccines to protect against the flu and pneumonia, can help them stay healthy.

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By 2060, almost a quarter of the U.S. population will be age 65 or older. Healthy People 2030 focuses on reducing health problems and improving quality of life for older adults. Older adults are at higher risk for chronic health problems like diabetes, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer's disease.

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Tips for Health Teaching Elderly Patients

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Tips for Health Teaching Elderly Patients

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HCPRO Website, February 4, 2013

Assessment is the first step in patient education. Evaluate your patient's skills and knowledge in important areas. Consider the patient's reading level, ability to learn, ability to understand English, and resources. Use the assessment findings to develop a unique plan for the patient.

Since many homecare patients are over the age of 65, you need to exercise a slightly different approach to meet their learning needs effectively. Consider the following tips for teaching elderly patients:

1. Maintain a positive and patient attitude. Treat the older person as intelligent and capable of learning.

2. Take a few minutes to talk and problem-solve before starting to teach. Ask the patient about experience in a given area. Find out what's worked or what hasn't worked in the past.

3. Identify significant cultural or social factors that may affect the teaching learning process.

4. Include the patient in setting learning goals. Keep the material relevant to the learner's needs.

5. Identify and try to accommodate any disability that may affect the learning process. For example, for patients with visual impairment, encourage the use of glasses (if appropriate), and investigate special learning tools, such as large print material.

6. Slow the pace of instruction and gear teaching to the patient's rate of absorption. Stop teaching if the patient appears tired or stressed.

7. Break each topic into small parts. Repeat sessions when necessary. Give pertinent, positive feedback.

8. Ask the patient to talk through the procedure before trying it. Provide opportunities for practice sessions and repeat demonstrations. Include role playing, discussion, and problem-solving.

9. Avoid tests or challenges - these can create too much stress and impede learning.

10. Assess responses carefully to make sure the information was understood correctly. Gear the frequency and duration of your teaching to match your patient's learning ability and need to know.

Invite family caregivers to be part of your infection control teaching process. At teaching sessions, you can further assess family dynamics. If one of your goals is to promote patient independence, make sure family members understand that their role is to support the patient, not to take over for the patient. And vice versa, if your goal is to teach the family members wound care - make sure that they understand that it will become their sole responsibility to provide this service for the patient for as long as the need remains. Encourage family caregivers to review and reinforce frequently what the patient is learning.

The ability to apply what has been learned is maximized when the teaching occurs where the tasks will be carried out. Select the area of the home where the patient or family caregiver will perform what you're teaching. Example: Teach ostomy care in the bathroom. To enhance learning, use proper lighting, maintain a comfortable temperature, keep the area free of clutter and keep distractions to a minimum.

Your teaching plan will likely require more than one session. Each session should contain some overlap so the patient can connect the steps logically. Conclude each session with a review of the material you covered and your goal for next time. Use a summary session to facilitate the process of integration and to provide the opportunity for evaluation and positive feedback. Leave audio-visuals in the home when possible, provide handouts appropriate for the patient's ability to read and comprehend, and encourage the patient to review the material independently.
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Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Educating your patients on infection control practices is extremely important because they are often home without a nurse or home health aide. To keep infections at bay, it is important to have the patient play a part in prevention.

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You will only know the success of the plan if you monitor your progress. Formally launch and implement the plan which becomes part of your organizational practices and policies.

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Health Literacy Basics for Health Professionals