The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) invite investigators to submit R01 and R03 research grant applications on health literacy. The goal is to increase scientific understanding of the nature of health literacy and its relationship to healthy behaviors, illness prevention and treatment, chronic disease management, health disparities, risk assessment of environmental factors, and health outcomes including oral and mental health. Such knowledge will help enable healthcare and public health systems to communicate effectively across different health literacy levels, and to employ strategies that reduce health disparities in the population.
This Program Announcement invites applications to develop research on health literacy in general areas that include, but are not limited to, the following:
· Modeling and measuring the nature and scope of health literacy;
· Variations in health literacy (e.g. over the life course, among adult English language learners, etc.);
· Mediators and moderators of low health literacy;
· The impact of low health literacy on health outcomes, diseases, behaviors and treatments, including the contribution of health literacy to informed decision-making, adherence to preventative or therapeutic regimens, utilization of health care services, risk avoidance strategies, and other consumer health-care related actions;
· The identification of effective preventive and other interventions to improve health literacy and health communications; and
· The development of effective methods and new technologies in health literacy research.
This Program Announcement will have an appropriate special scientific review group convened by the NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR) in accordance with the standard NIH peer review procedures. Further, this initiative provides two mechanisms of support through separate Program Announcements. PAR-04-116 invites R01 applications (research project grants), and PAR-04-117 invites R03 applications (small grants).
AHRQ and the following NIH Institutes and Offices are participating in both Program Announcements: NCI, NIA, NIBIB, NICHD, NIDCR, NIDDK, NIDA, NIEHS, NIMH, NLM, OBSSR. NHLBI and NIDCD invite R01 applications only.
For additional information, please see the Program Announcements (at http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-04-116.html and http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-04-117.html) for appropriate contacts.