Health literacy

affects their acceptance to medical diagnosis and treatment plan. But most challenges are seen in individuals with low health literacy, as a result, most chronic illnesses are not treated well because they discontinue their medication in the absence of any signs and symptoms, or refused to take the medications as prescribed. Shaw et al., (2009). Documented that “health literacy, the ability to understand and act on a physician’s instructions, is related to morbidity and mortality from a variety…

it comes to health care the most important part is treating the patient and health care providers should be wanting to give their patients the best care possible. Patients have the right to govern their own body, autonomy, to choice which course of action they will take for their health (Paola, F., et.al, 2010). Legally and ethically it is important to make sure the patient understands not only what they are being treated for but also how they are being treated ("The Ethics of Health Care…

The term health can be categorized as either mental or physical. Mental health refers to a patient’s cognitive, psychological, and intellectual state of being. Physical health refers to a patient’s physiological and biological state of being. A patient’s health determines how they go on with their lives. There are different levels and dimensions to health, with each encompassing its own array of benefits and detriments. Society may judge health by physical appearance. For example, being…

(Diebel, 2014). Known within the health care sector for their strict adherence to a traditional lifestyle and “reluctance to seek preventative health care and delaying necessary medical treatment” (Brewer and Bonalumi, 1995, p. 494), the Amish are distinct from most other communities in America. Despite aversion to preventative health care, the Amish do seek out professional health services when necessary (Banks and Benchot, 2001), so it is imperative that health service professionals who work…

Health literacy is a common problem health entities face in the U.S. Health literacy is found within any age, gender or classification. Most community that suffers with health literacy is the poor and older community. Poverty is the leading reason why most individuals within these communities lacks proper education and sadly have chosen to drop out of school to find jobs to help with expense. The older communities suffer with forgetfulness (related illness) or insufficient education. A great way…

Limited health literacy has been associated with enhanced health variations, lower clinical results, improved use of healthcare services, and various medical safety problems containing medical and prescription mistakes. Promoting health literacy for all Americans becomes been recognized as one of the 20 essential steps to develop healthcare quality on a national scale. Elderly adults have higher chronic diseases and utilize primary health services than another segment of the people, and they…

Health Literacy Training Low health literacy is associated with adverse patient outcomes, increase risk of hospital admissions, readmissions and increase mortality rates. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report found that 90 million American adults do not have literacy skills to use the health system in the Unites States effectively (Parker & Kindig, 2006). The IOM report defined health literacy as, “ the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand…

answer: How do we effectively combat the lack of health literacy in North County? In order to answer these questions, we had to learn: What makes up health? We answered this question both in our speech and presentation citing information from the WHO. The WHO reported on 7 determinants of health: income/social status, education, physical environment, social support networks, genetics, health services, and gender. Because our project revolved around health knowledge, having education as a key…

Making appropriate health care decisions depends on a person’s literacy; the ability to process and understand the healthiness information provided by clinicians (U. S. Department of Health & Human Services [HHS], 2008). Only 12% of the American population is able to thoroughly process the exchange of health information; and, the remaining population have medium to low literacy levels with the inability to comprehend all or some of what the clinician is telling them when providing treatment or…

Health Literacy in the Hispanic Community The United States Bureau of Census determined that more than half of the minority population is classified as functionally or marginally illiterate (Kutner et al, 2016). A major aspect of this problem is that recent immigrants know little or no English when they arrive to the United States (Kutner et al, 2006). The level of the English language that is known is limited to what is required to function in the workplace and community (Kutner et…