Social determinants of health, including low health literacy and limited English proficiency, and other factors place Latinos at high risk for health disparities related to chronic diseases. Such diseases require self-management skills as well as medical management. Well-designed visualizations are suitable for visualizing data related to self-management because they can help narrow the comprehension gap between individuals with low and high levels of health literacy by leveraging existing visual analysis skills while reducing the demand on literacy and numeracy competencies. Use of information visualizations also supports a common visual representation across languages to address limited English proficiency. This report illustrates the use of information visualizations for communication related to self-management through research-based case examples and summarizes key lessons from studies with Latinos in New York City.
Keywords: Health literacy; Latino; health equity; information visualization; self-management.