Supporting health literacy among older adults in basic education: Educators’ perspectives on the use of the KANSAS search engine

Abstract

Objective: Providing basic health education to older adults with limited reading skills is increasingly important due to demographic change. Health literacy enables older adults to navigate healthcare more successfully and make informed decisions, but educators in adult basic education often struggle to find materials that are both relevant and suitable. This study explored two key aspects of this challenge. First, it investigated how adult educators from Germany perceived the relevance of health literacy for adults aged 65 years and above. Second, it examined the effectiveness of a language-adaptive search engine, KANSAS, in identifying linguistically appropriate health-related texts for this target group. Design: Mixed-methods design, combining a survey and an experimental comparison of perceptions and search results of two search engines. Setting: Data were collected via an online platform used by adult educators working in basic education contexts. Method: A total of N = 58 adult educators participated in a between-subjects study in October 2022, comparing the KANSAS search engine with a similar looking search engine without linguistic functionalities. Participants were asked to evaluate retrieved health-related reading texts regarding their linguistic suitability. Texts were analysed for readability, word and syllable count, and targeted grammatical features. Results: Many educators considered health literacy for older adults important in their professional context, although some reported limited experience working with members of this learner group. Texts retrieved via KANSAS showed significantly better readability and lower linguistic complexity. Although the frequency of targeted grammatical constructions did not differ significantly, participants rated KANSAS as more suitable for educators in identifying relevant linguistic features. Conclusion: KANSAS can support literacy educators by facilitating the selection of appropriate health texts. Combined with growing educator awareness of language-adaptive reading material, such tools may help integrate health literacy more effectively into various adult education contexts.