Carbone Serves on Health Literacy Panel at WHO Global Conference

Elena Carbone, professor of nutrition and associate dean for curriculum and academic oversight with the Commonwealth Honors College at UMass Amherst, recently served as a panelist at the World Health Organization's (WHO) 10th Global Conference on Health Promotion held virtually Dec. 13-15.

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Carbone participated in a session titled “Health literacy: An empowering health promotion strategy to foster equitable population well-being, sustainably and globally.” In the session, co-organized by the WHO Action Network on Measuring Population and Organizational Health Literacy (M-POHL) and International Health Literacy Association (IHLA), Carbone and fellow panelists discussed the critical importance of health literacy skills in managing information and making decisions for health and well-being, especially regarding the challenges of the pandemic. The speakers focused on different perspectives of health literacy, presented key findings and evidence from recent international studies, shared the new IHLA Vision on “Health Literacy for All,” and explored how health literacy can be integrated into future health promotion research, policy, and practice.

Carbone works in community settings to examine how low income, culturally diverse populations with limited literacy skills attend to and process health information. Her mixed methods research engages communities and integrates behavioral interventions to promote health and prevent chronic disease complications. She recently co-authored a textbook chapter entitled, “Reintegrate Empowerment & Health Literacy to Advance Public Health and Healthcare Delivery.”