October is National Health Literacy Month. Health literacy refers to the ability of people to find, understand and use information and services to make informed health-related decisions.
Dr. Angela Mattke, a pediatrician with Mayo Clinic’s Children’s Center, said the clinic is leading the way to enhancing health literacy for children through engaging books to inform and inspire young people.
“Mayo Clinic is truly an expert in health care,” she said. “And we have an opportunity to be there talking with children, getting them excited about their health and empowering them to have agency over their own health and the health of their communities.”
Mattke noted that these types of books cover a wide range of health- and science-related topics.
“I think there’s a lot of health topics that children struggle to understand — anything from immunizations to why they’re feeling sick, especially when children have serious and complex diseases,” she said.
Understanding their disease can help children feel empowered and knowledgeable about how they can participate in their care, Mattke said.
But it’s not just kids with serious health conditions who can benefit from this education.
“My children have read all these books and have read them multiple and multiple times,” she said. “And so they can help understand these diseases. It’s inspiring their passion to learn more about science and learn more about health.”
That is another goal of promoting health literacy in children, Mattke noted.
“We need to get kids interested in STEM — science, engineering, technology and medicine,” she said. “And these are really important topics. And so we’re bringing these topics to kids to get them interested at an early age and inspire that passion.”
