Spotlight: Melissa Valerio, PhD
The numbers are staggering. According to the American Medical Association, over 89 million American adults have limited health literacy skills. This means that almost 40% of people aged 18 and over, have trouble understanding basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions and follow instructions for treatment. Bringing awareness of this issue and uncovering solutions to this problem is a high priority for HBHE faculty member, Melissa Valerio.
Dr. Valerio joined the department in 2007. Her research focuses on identifying ways to help people manage their chronic disease. She is concerned not only with intervening at the patient side, but with looking how health providers communicate information to patients and how to improve that communication in ways that can help manage their chronic diseases. She explains: “When an individual is at a doctor’s office, it can be overwhelming when they are first given a diagnosis of a chronic condition. We want them to be able to follow the regimen prescribed by the doctor and to make good clinical decisions. This requires cognitive processing, that is, health literacy.”
Dr. Valerio’s research attempts to identify the best way to deliver the information to the individual, as well as the best person to deliver the information. She points out that this can depend on the individual. Working with the Center for Managing Chronic Disease, Dr. Valerio is working to identify the variables that may play a role.
Her research in this area is focused on the identification of strategies for improvement of chronic disease management in marginalized and underserved populations with low health literacy. She is currently assessing the understanding of oral health needs of patients with type 2 diabetes in adults. These results will guide the development of a comprehensive patient/provider communication training module for use in continuing education and training. Dr. Valerio is also the PI of a study evaluating an educational intervention to improve asthma management through reduction of asthma-related health literacy in an underserved adult population.
In addition to her research, Dr. Valerio introduces the issues of cultural competence, functional health literacy, and literacy to her students in the classroom. HBHE 641, Materials and Methods builds upon the foundation of psychosocial theories of health behavior and health education to understand the design, use and effectiveness of health education materials. Students learn about a variety of health education mediums and work in cooperation with a community organization to create a product. The course introduces students to both traditional materials including brochures, booklets, posters, videos as well as emerging materials, including podcasting, and Internet websites.
She will also be teaching HBHE 624 Needs Assessment for the first time next fall. This course teaches students how to collect and gather data, as well as use existing data to design public health strategies. Both courses will give students applied hands-on experience.
Dr. Valerio feels that students should come away from the HBHE program with an understanding of how to use theory to build interventions and assess community needs. "A theoretical framework is critical for design and evaluation, and you are better able to plan and evaluate.”
When away from the office, Dr. Valerio likes to take full advantage of the Michigan experience, and coming from a small town in Texas, Dr. Valerio appreciates the seasons. In fact, when asked what her favorite thing to do in Ann Arbor, she responds, “football Saturdays”. As a Michigan alum, she and her husband attend the games throughout the season. “I love the energy that is town… we see the same people, go to the same hot dog stand, it’s great.”
Dr. Valerio can be contacted at: mvalerio@umich.edu.