Health Literacy And Medical Adherence Of The Aging Population

In 2010, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services crafted the nation’s 10 year health agenda. Healthy People 2020 outlines key objectives aimed at improving the standard of care health consumers receive by improving both the quality and format of health information offered to consumers as well as improving the consumers’ ability to obtain and process that information. These objectives included supporting shared decision-making between patients and providers, increasing health literacy skills, and delivering accurate, accessible, and usable health information that is targeted or tailored to the individual. (“Healthy People.gov” 2015)

Health literacy has been demarcated as the measurement of the individual’s capacity to obtain, understand and process simple health information. It is needed to make satisfactory health decisions and determine services needed to treat or prevent illness. Health literacy requires knowledge from many topics, comprising the patient’s own body, appropriate conducts towards healthy results and the difficulties to understand the health system. It is influenced by many conditions such as our communication skills, age, socio-economic status, and cultural background, past experiences, educational level and mental health status (U.S. Department of

Disparities in health care are significant in the United States and the root causes are multifactorial. Social determinants of health such as poverty, socioeconomic status, access to resources, and patient education influence health outcomes. Emerging data has shown health literacy as a potential contributor to health disparities that impact health and lifestyle choices (Yee, 2017). Health literacy, characterized as a skill set necessary to understand health information, involves communication skills of both patient and health professionals as well as cultural factors. For example, low health literacy has been shown to contribute to health disparities, especially in racial and ethnic minorities (Hill-Briggs, 2012). As a result of an increasingly diverse ethnic/cultural and racial

Research shows that seniors with less education and from lower socioeconomic levels experience more disease, a shorter life expectancy and poorer emotional wellbeing. Additionally, Raina et al. (2000) explains that older men and women health is differentially susceptible to various health determining factors. For example, for older men, education has more effect, income and stress affects older women. The proposition is that health education is necessary to create health awareness and to increase health outcome among the seniors. Rowlands, Protheroe, Winkley, Richardson, Seed & Rudd (2015) study shows that low health literacy is correlated with greater use of medical services, less precautionary care, greater difficulty managing long-term illnesses,

Health promotion brochure should be written at an appropriate grade level for the consumer to understand. According to Helmig (2006) The familiar brochures, tent-cards, checklists, posters, and newsletter, and mainstays of physicians’ offices and waiting rooms serve as important resources for patients, but they often do not speak to patients in a language they can understand ( p 82). The readability of this brochure according to SMOG is at a 10th grade level. Research shows that more than 20% of adults read below the fifth grade level. Examples in the brochure that would be difficult for the consumer to understand is under the heading “About your Diabetes.” This information is confusing and need more clarification to help the consumer understand and interpret the information that is given. According to Safeer & Keenan (2005), health literacy is basic reading that allows a person to function in the health care environment. The authors’ also stated elderly consumers are predominantly affected because of their reading and comprehension abilities are influenced by their vision and hearing status (p. 463).

Health literacy has been a problem with our patients. The most vulnerable populations are the elderly, people with low-income levels, those with limited education, non-native speakers of English, those with chronic mental and physical health conditions, minority, and immigrant populations. Nurses have a great role in helping our patients succeed in understanding their health conditions. Nurses can be of great help in promoting health literacy. Sykes, Wills, Rowlands and Popple (2013) defined health literacy as the ability of individuals to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information. The three domains of health literacy, according to Bennett and Perkins (2012) as adapted from the (WHO) (1998) are functional health literacy, interactive literacy, and critical health literacy. Functional health literacy is basic reading and writing skills to be able to function effectively in a health context. Interactive health literacy is the used of more advanced cognitive and literacy skills to participate in health care. Critical health literacy is the ability to analyze critically and to use information to participate in action, to overcome structural barriers to health (p.14). The U.S. Department of Education published the findings of the National Assessment of Adult Literacy conducted in 2003. The result showed that 36 % of adults have basic or below-basic skills for dealing with health material, 52 %

The Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHOH) are understudied population and disproportionately impacted by cardiovascular diseases (CVD) due communication barriers (Mckee, Mckee, Winters, Sutter, & Pearson, 2014; McKee & Paasche-Orlow, 2012; Strong & Prinz, 1997). In considering the link between communication barriers and CVD attribute to insufficient English proficiency, inability to comprehend physicians’ spoken and written instructions, and inability to access community-based health outreach education programs in which all these surface factors increases the chance of DHOH developing CVD (McKee et al., 2011; Margellos-Anast, Estarziau, & Kaufman, 2006). The barriers that restrict access to health information suggest that

A healthcare disparity is a limitation of healthcare availability, usually among a certain racial or socioeconomic demographic (Black, 2013). However, there are disparities that don’t have a specific demographic and affect the entirety of the United States, which are potentially most detrimental to the overall health of our country. One of those disparities is health literacy, or the exchange of complex information from the healthcare provider to the patient or client (Black, 2013). The lack of health literacy in America poses as a problem, especially with the chronically ill. Without proper knowledge of how to treat their illness and what to do when the disease process worsens or ameliorates can potentially cause millions of unnecessary hospitalizations,

The biggest, most pressing problem in healthcare today that is a direct effect of poor health literacy is hospital readmission for African American patients with cardiovascular disease, more specifically congestive heart failure. Nearly 1 in 4 patients hospitalized with congestive heart failure (CHF) is readmitted within 30 days of discharge . Over 5 million people have CHF with an additional 550,000 diagnosed each year1. In fact, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in America and has been since the 1970’s (REF) with African Americans being

The United States is a melting pot of cultural diversity. For a country that was founded by individuals fleeing persecution, it has taken us many years to grant African-Americans equal rights, and even longer for those rights to be recognized. Despite all the effort to eliminate inequality in this country, health disparity among this minority group remains a significant issue. Research in this area has pointed to several key reasons for this gap that center on differences in culture, socioeconomics, and lack of health literacy.

du Pre', A. (2000). Communicating about health: Issues and perspectives. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.

The problems associated with the health literacy have been identified by the researchers in the last ten years. They came to know the role played by it in the medical as well as the individual self care by the comprehension of information related to health and the outcomes related to it (Carolyn Speros, 2004).

Health literacy is both a consumer and public healthcare issue. As a health care provider, it is not only my responsibility to ensure that you understand your health and what is going on

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

Communication in nursing is an essential skill which allows nurses to capably deliver effective and efficient care. Nurses being providers of health care must be able to recognise and prevent barriers that may occur throughout the communication process as their job is to primarily interact with patients in a culturally diverse workplace (Dwyer, 2012). Barriers such as health illiteracy and poor communication play an important role on the care that is delivered by nurses and other health care providers. In 2006 an adult literacy and life skills survey was conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), information collected from the survey had shown that 59% of the Australian adult population displayed low health literacy skills. This high figure indicates that nearly 6 out of 10 Australians over the age of eighteen may not be able to make appropriate