Medical Writing: Get to the Heart of Health Literacy and CVD Risk

It’s February and that means it’s American Heart Month!

Each year during the month of February the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and The Heart Truth® lead a coordinated effort to educate the American public about heart disease, the leading cause of death the United States. Thankfully, cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk can be reduced by modifying lifestyle behaviors such as diet, alcohol consumption, physical activity and cessation of smoking or vaping. However, heart disease still accounts for 1 out of 5 deaths in the US (1).

A significant barrier to heart disease prevention, recognition, management and treatment is low health literacy (2). While the links between inadequate health literacy and poor CVD outcomes among Americans is multifactorial, improving patient health literacy by enhancing medical communication is an important step in mitigating this issue (2,3).

The concept of understanding the target audience is fundamental to achieving success among the various members of the medical and scientific community. Medical writers play an important role in this challenge by helping bridge the knowledge gap not only between patients and practitioners, but also among medical professionals across all disciplines and training. Success is enabled by knowing the audience and choosing the appropriate platform and tools to effectively disseminate scientific and medical information. For example, patient educational material will be vastly different from a scientific publication written for the scientific community or standard of care procedures written for physicians. Similarly, written material can vary based on experience in a given field from the graduate student level through more senior faculty members or industry leaders.

In that vein, format must also be considered as FDA documents or response letters as well as grant applications for basic, clinical, and translational research may have more specific structures to the application components.

Taken together, effective communication not only impacts research and development, but also supports professional advancement and influences how (or whether) the public embraces scientific and medical information. This can have a significant impact on public health programs and policies as well as research and development, thus leading to disease prevention, improved treatment management and outcomes - ultimately reducing disease risk and saving lives.  

1. Tsao CW, Aday AW, Almarzooq ZI, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics-2022 Update: A Report from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2022;145(8):E153-E639.

2. Magnani JW, Mujahid MS, Aronow HD, et al. Health Literacy and Cardiovascular Disease: Fundamental Relevance to Primary and Secondary Prevention: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2018;138(2):e48-e74.

3.  Perrin A, Damiolini E, Schott AM, et al. Considering health literacy in cardiovascular disease management: a qualitative study on healthcare professionals’ and patients’ perspectives. BMC Health Serv Res. 2022;22(1):1-12.