Promoting Healthy Choices Through Clear Writing

Health-related articles are often complex—too complex, at times, for many people to understand.

And if the information is not understandable, it is hard for people to act on it.

That was the problem Hannah Sabbagh, a recent graduate of Mailman School of Public Health, tackled in an internship while in school.

“Through my internship with the Harlem Health Promotion Center,(link is external and opens in a new window) I practiced crafting health messages that will be processed and remembered, rather than leave the audience confused and flustered,” said Sabbagh.

In a post on the Columbia Public Health: Student Voices Blog(link is external and opens in a new window), Sabbagh talks about how she worked to foster health literacy by developing accessible health content through the Harlem Health Promotion Center's website(link is external and opens in a new window), which includes what it calls its “healthopedia(link is external and opens in a new window),” an online source for simple definitions of health terms.

Read more about Sabbagh's work on the Columbia Public Health: Student Voices Blog.(link is external and opens in a new window)