Health literacy

Health literacy is defined as “the degree to which individuals can obtain, process, and understand the basic information and services they need to make appropriate health decisions” (Jacobson). According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy only twelve percent of adults in the United States are proficient in health literacy. This paper proposes that health literacy in the U.S. is dangerously inadequate and the problem is a serious deficit in our health care and education systems. People with limited literacy have many struggles they have to face, and one major challenges is the ability to navigate the medical field. Yet, low health literacy not only affects individuals who struggle with English. It also impacts individuals who have…

What is Health Literacy? When a person has good health literacy they are able to get their hands on and understand health information, health services and the terminology used in order to make informed decisions about their own health. What is Health Status? The health status of a person or group is often determined by their life expectancy and sometimes even a self-assessment of a particular person’s health. The term is used more broadly when discussing physical illness and mental wellbeing…

Health Literacy In New Zealand up to 80% Maori men and 75% Maori women have poor health literacy skills. Over 50% of the adult population in New Zealand have difficulties with health literacy (Korero Marama: Health Literacy and Maori, 2010). OECD countries also have similar result as New Zealand. The scale of one (very low skills) to five (very high skills) is used to measure health literacy skills (Work base, 2012). Everyone should understand about their health and the health services…

First thing I want to share is that I don’t remember whether we used the term “health literacy” at work training in the hospital I worked before. But one thing I notice while doing the health literacy assessment tool is that the work training we had emphasized effective communication between patient-provider, exam patient’s understanding of health education by the teach-back method, and so forth. These are covered in the health literacy constructs. My colleagues and I always assess patients’…

Introduction Health literacy constitutes a series of varied skills and understandings that enable an individual to effectively function within a variety of health contexts, and is especially important to education as it imbues students with the understandings and skillsets required to make informed evaluations and decisions about their health. This is especially important given that good health is a well-known attribute of a successful learner. Ideally, a health literacy program would begin in…

that has influences the health literacy of the patient. Improving literacy by helping to filter what the patients can use as a source of information is the goal of the health care professional. Television has played a huge part in the literacy of the patients and will continue to influence the patients’’ knowledge on health care. Some patients watch TV for information and usually come to the doctor’s office requesting that same medication that was advertised. Educating patient with the right…

In today’s rapidly evolving society, literacy still poses a major quandary for American citizens across the nation. Health care educators provide written documents to teach patients. Thus, nurses must be cognizant of taking additional measures in aiding the illiterate patient when providing printed education materials (PEM). The reading material opposed to the literacy comprehension in patients demonstrated a significant gap in readability. As a result, strategies were devised to assist with…

Over the last decades, research has showed that health literacy is closely correlated with individual’s health, social and economic status. Surprisingly, according to the data from International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey 2003, Green and Riddell report that approximately 42 % of Canadians between the ages of 16 and 65 years fail to achieve reading level required for high school completion in Canada (Green, Riddell, 2003). This reading level requires the respondents to understand a sentence…

caregivers with marginal health literacy skills. Since people living with HIV are likely to show strong reliance on the support and counselling of informal caregivers, this finding is crucial, even though still little is known about this issue among both researchers and healthcare practitioners. On the one hand, the scientific literature seems to overlook the effects of informal caregivers’ limited health literacy on the health status of the patient, mainly focusing on specific concerns such as…

Health literacy is not just the ability to read but to understand and apply what is instructed. The associated problem of health literacy goes beyond implementing a health education outreach program. Knowing the background of the target population is significantly important before implementing any outreach program. In the area of cardiovascular health, public health outreach programs require an aggressive intervention to address the social determinant of health in the United States (US). In…