4 Domains Of Health Literacy

\Often there is concern deciding how to improve this area of healthcare, and this is resolved by establishing that it is the responsibility of all healthcare professions to identify information gaps in order to come to the more rational and beneficial conclusion about declining health literacy in this population.

The health literacy assessment is a great tool at the time of providing a better idea of the level of understanding for patients. I friends help me with the assignment, we used to different versions of the test to compare them and appreciate how easy or complicated they can be. After finishing them, we got to the conclusion that neither of the test versions were complicated; instead it was perceive like a word game. On the other hand I do not know if patients will fell the same way that my friend did about testing. Personally, I will not think having a problem administrating this test to a patient but I am concern on the patient wiliness to take a test. Many people can feel overwhelm about testing and not be too collaborative about it which

The financial consequences of low health literacy will affect society as a whole. Our health insurance will rise. The educational institute will be affect as they rewrite the health information in a simplistic format to make it possible for someone with low health literacy to understand the material. This is costly in printing but, also in educating the health professionals. According to the article, the cost of low health literacy annually per capita is $3,90 that is equivalent to the costs of health coverage for more than 60 million Americans. Personally, cost is not the only factor that affects society there is the problem of health risk to the public. Low health literacy patients wait until they are gravely ill to seek medical treatment

Literacy is the ability to read and write. This knowledge is typically learned through education. Some minorities aren't given these opportunities because they aren't provided in their home country. So when they arrive to America they don't have any knowledge of how to read or write especially things that maybe written in English. Health literacy is being able to understand "medical" language. This language and wording is used in prescriptions, food labels or typically by a health care provider. If a patient doesn't have any previous knowledge of health literacy they may be at a loss and unable to comprehend what their doctor is saying.

Furthermore, in order to educate the older adults, some teaching strategies are supposed to be acquired to enable them cope with their different deficiencies and still gather the necessary information they need to make healthy choices (Nair & Cienkowski, 2010). For health literacy to be efficient in the elderly, the nurses and health educators should always start looking at the history of their patients, short and long term deficiencies that they face, the effectiveness of their coping mechanism, what their needs are related to the cognitive functions, communication inadequacies, the amount of information they can take and how learning should be taught for different patients (Sabatini, et al. 2010). After all the necessary evaluation of the

The United States’ healthcare reform has and still is going through systematic improvements and developments. Since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act - 36 out of the 50 states rely on the federal health exchange, which is also known as The Marketplace for its healthcare coverage. Texas is one of those states that utilizes this for its residents to research and compare coverage costs for any given provider. As evidence has demonstrated that patients who are involved in their health care tend to experience a superior outcome and decreased costs. As a result, numerous public and private health care organizations are employing strategies to better engage their patients, such as educating them about their conditions and involving them

Increasing health literacy skills on a population level is likely to require substantive improvements to the US educational system, health care system, and society at large. However, there are a number of concrete steps that providers can take to help address the problem of limited health literacy in clinical practice. These include adopting clinical communication strategies, improving print materials, and optimizing modalities for patient education.

Inadequate health literacy is a hidden crisis that is plaguing our nation. The ability to obtain, process, and understand health information needed to make informed health decisions is known as health literacy. The current health care system is biased on the notion that patients can fully comprehend health information and navigate through a complex health system. According to the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, only 12% of adults in the United States have proficient health literacy, while 30 million Americans have literacy skills defined as "below basic." These patients have difficulty comprehending that labels of their prescriptions or even understanding a future follow-up appointment slip. The limited health literacy of results in poor health outcomes and increase financial burden on the health system; nevertheless, active health educators such a pharmacist can help patients navigate through the labyrinth of health information to make rational health decisions.

Health literacy is an essential determinant of health. Health literacy is the degree in which people have the ability to obtain process and understand fundamental health services and information in order to make informed health decisions throughout different phases of life. Patients who are better educated and informed about their options and who understand the evidence behind certain methodologies may have better health outcomes. On the other hand, low health literacy leads to many health problems. In fact, it seems to be the “single biggest cause of poor health outcomes” (Kickbusch 208). Low health literacy inhibits self-advocacy in health care settings. Patients with limited literacy cannot actively participate in health-related decisions

This makes many extremely vulnerable to poor health outcomes. “Health literacy is believed to be a stronger predictor of health outcomes than social and economic status, education, gender, and age.” (Egbert & Nanna, 2009, p. 1) Groups considered to be at highest risk are the elderly, people of low socioeconomic status, as well as those with English as a second language. Many of these groups may be one in the same. Within the Community Health population, many patients are elderly with English as a second language and poor, which presents an even bigger challenge. The elderly are more likely to have lower health literacy skills due to decreased in cognitive and reading abilities. (Egbert & Nanna, 2009, p. 4) Educating the population on when and where to seek treatment as well as empowering them to take control over their health is key in improving overall health, and

Physicians argue that researchers should spend less time trying to improve on overall communities health literacy, and instead let individual practices focus on their own patients. Kristen Johnson, an M.D. said in Experts Debate Value of Assessing Health Literacy, “As a physician, you want to know how much of what you are telling a patient is getting through. This gives some guidance on how to tailor your message.” Another M.D., Joanne G. Schwartzberg added on that, “Clinicians can better spend their time ensuring that all their patients understand the medical information they need to know to care for themselves.” As I can see values of their points, I find it arguable. For some it may be easy to focus on their own specific patients instead of addressing health literacy as nationwide issue, but there needs to be specification making sure Americans receive the same valuable information to better

A study was conducted using members of the Medical Library Association (MLA) and groups of environmental health consultants to the National Library of Medicine (NLM), following a report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). In the report the IOM defined health literacy as ‘‘the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions’’ (Logan). The IOM reported that health literacy is major problem facing the nation and that even well-educated Americans have pressing issues with certain aspects of the health system. These issues include problems with understanding medical terms, prescription information, and even problems traveling around hospitals and medical centers. The IOM concluded that improving health literacy in the United States is one of the most pressing health policy issues. This conclusion sparked a large amount of discussion throughout the academic literature and some mailing lists for health professionals.

Health literacy in not solely based on an individual’s ability to read; it is their ability to read, listen, and analyze health information and then apply that information to make complex health care decisions. Health literacy has been so strongly linked to disease understanding, treatment adherence, and health outcomes that recommendations suggest that health literacy should be assessed routinely when working with patients, especially those who are infected with chronic diseases. Health literacy impacts patient outcomes at three critical stages: access to health care, interaction between patient and health care provider, and self-care. Low health literacy has been linked to inadequate engagement in care and may serve as a contributor to poor health outcomes among people living with chronic and acute health conditions. Patients with basic or low health literacy skills do not have the ability to perform even the simplest of those tasks, nor are they able to provide information as to why and when certain illnesses might need to have a specified

When speaking to an individual in regards health care, education the reading materials need to be given to the client at an approached reading level. According to Literacy Project Foundation" Illiteracy has become such a serious problem in our country that 44 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children." Health care workers must be aware of the client reading and comprehension level and also assist in addressing literacy needs of a client when giving a client written health care information. Health care works must also take into consideration a client age, and culture background when giving a client health care education materials.

The model that I chose to investigate further is the conceptual model that addresses the relationship between an individual’s capabilities, health related printed materials, oral literacy and improved health outcomes (Parnell, 2015, p. 20). The defining attributes most commonly associated with health literacy are reading and numeracy skills, comprehending the written materials and the ability to determine what types of services needed and where to find them (Parnell, 2015, p. 19). Foreign-born individuals tend to have low health literacy and have even greater difficulty navigating the American health care system. They may have the following barriers that making utilizing the health care system more difficult, including inability to understand, speak or read English, have a lower education level, lack family support and lack of providers that speak their language.