Picture this: visual cues enhance health education messages for people with low literacy skills.

D W m h p t h he old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words” refers to the idea that an image may be more uccessful in communicating a story han several lines of text—but does his idea hold true for communicating ealth information to people with low iteracy skills? While people at all literacy levels ay have problems comprehending nd retaining health information for variety of reasons, including comlex medical terminology and preocupation with their own symptoms, eople with limited literacy skills are specially in need of assistance beause they require additional help unerstanding written information and, ecause they place more reliance on poken explanations, they need help n remembering what they hear (1). ccording to a paper published in Paient Education and Counseling that xamined several recent studies on he role of pictures in improving ealth communication, “adding picures to written and spoken language ncreases patient retention, compreension, recall, and adherence, and an be especially helpful to patients ith low literacy skills (1).” So, the old adage does seem to aply when communicating health inormation to people with low literacy kills. The real question for food and utrition practitioners is related to he practical application of this idea: hat are the best practices for incororating pictures, illustrations, and ther graphics when communicating ealth information to patients and lients with low literacy skills? Joan Guthrie Medlen, RD, LD, auhor of The Down Syndrome Nutrition andbook, specializes in designing