Health Literacy Examples

Health literacy empowers individuals with knowledge and understanding regarding health information enabling them to make informed decisions about their health care. Health literacy affects people of all ages, race and ethnicity, education levels, income and languages spoken. All individuals deserve the right to have access to accurate, easy to understand, reliable, valid information to make informed decisions about their healthcare. According to Baur (2011), Health literacy is the extent in which individuals acquire, assimilate and comprehend health information and services to make informed health decisions. This has become a public health mission in the Healthy People agenda of 2010 and 2020 (Baur, 2011, p.63).

These special education children have now added to the economic burden of CVD (Zazove & Doukas, 1994). Health literacy plays a major issue (Baker, 2006) in the DHOH population, as the huge cost on the economy health expenditures is relevant to low health literacy (Laureate Education, Inc, 2011). Health literacy is a term used to define the ability to act upon medical or health information independently (Laureate Education, Inc, 2011). Likewise, the ability to completely complete demographic forms, commitment to follow up appointments, comprehend basic medical procedure, and medication compliance are signs of a person with health literacy (Laureate Education, Inc, 2011). According to CDC (2011), " the degree to which an individual can obtain, communicate, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions" (p. 1). Therefore, the potential health consequence of low health literacy as it associates with CVD, apart from an increase chance of accidental death, is the rise in hospitalizations (Andrus & Roth, 2002). An increase in hospitalization increases the chance of miscommunication, barriers in cultural gaps contrition, and insufficient interpreter translations, among patients and doctors. Two decades of attention in the health care accessibility rights of DHOH

What if every other person that received help from a healthcare provider left the health facility and did not comply with anything the provider told them? The patient did not take the medication as directed, if at all, did not follow-up in 2 weeks to ensure adequate treatment and never improved, or did not care for their surgical wound, leading them to being hospitalized for sepsis. What is the point in going to seek help, if the patient is not going to do what it takes to improve? As emphasized in the American Medical Association (AMA) video, nearly one-half of Americans do not have the skills to overcome the barriers to health literacy (2010). “Health literacy is the ability to read, understand, and act on health information.” (AMA, 2010) Taking this into consideration, who is to blame, the patient who did nothing the provider told them to, or the provider who did not ensure understanding of the information given to the patient nor emphasize the importance of compliance and risks? Patients do not visit healthcare facilities to cause themselves more confusion and continued suffering, they are seeking advice and assistance, trusting that the provider will be able to deliver care in the most appropriate manner no matter the circumstances. Although many of these health literacy barriers are out of the provider’s control, such as the inability to read or memory impairment, this does not denote that there are not many ways to overcome

The Australian government plays a vital role in promoting health literacy in the community. There are three levels, federal, state and territories, and local government that comprise a complex division of responsibilities (OECD, 2015). The fundamental goal of health care is to lesson disease and promote health (Australia’s Health,2016). One effective tactic is to embed the principles into health systems. (Vellar, Mastroianni & Lambert., 2016, p622) An excellent example is the successful implementation at Shoalhaven local health district (SHLHD), of a Health Literacy Framework between 2012 -2015. Methods utilised included the use of plain English in all healthcare information, training of staff across all disciplines and the requirement that health literacy be considered in all interpersonal communication. Patient feedback regarding the SHLHD has been positive. (Vellar et al., 2016). Therefore, the embedding of health literacy in to the policies and frameworks within a health service is an effective way of ultimately increasing the health care outcomes of patients.

Health literacy assessment should be performed with care and sensitivity, because the social implications of identifying a patient as being of low health literacy could be counterproductive. Currently, supported literacy assessments are often time-intensive and logistically challenging, with most requiring in-person administration. So the tools need to be clear and concise, user friendly and less time consuming. There is currently no commonly used tool that measures this knowledge. However, recent Australian research has been undertaken on the development of tools and conceptual frameworks that may better reflect the overall individual health literacy of a person, as well as their broader social and environmental contexts. These tools include

The health literacy need chosen was cultural competency, a poster was made as the resource as many culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) individuals face a barrier in health literacy in which there thought process and reactions are different to those that are more use to the western healthcare system. The way CALD individuals view certain health problems such as death, recovery and certain diseases may not align with the western biomedical model as their culture may not be synonymous with Australian culture or they may have faced negative experiences in their previous health experiences (Holmes and Grech, 2015). The resource made attempts to responds to this health literacy need by trying to eliminate the fear of a cultural barrier between

In this weeks required reading, chapter 11 The State and Quality of Canadian Public Education and chapter 12, Literacy and Health Literacy: New Understandings about their Impact on Health, the authors discus in great detail how health and education goes hand-in-hand. Chapter 11, argues that vulnerabilities and inequalities certain student experience daily such as socioeconomic, gender differences and ethno-cultural factors that have a lasting health effect on their health in the long run. The continuation of such failures public school regulations work under, it will potentially separate communities in Canada, creating a division which is kind of like repeating history. In addition, chapter 12 says it’s essential for Canada to improve its

As mentioned in Heinrich’s article, Health Literacy should be considered as the sixth vital sign as it can significantly affect the patient’s treatment. To approach the topic, I will tell the patient that to prepare them and us, the providers, for their care, we will be giving them a questionnaire, which will tell the healthcare providers the best way to communicate and explain to them their healthcare needs.

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

My definition of health literacy has greatly changed during this course. Looking back upon my first post, I realize that I knew little of health literacy. After this class, I have realized that most adults have low health literacy levels and require instructions in simple form to obtain a clear understanding of the health materials. Health literacy is more complex than I had originally thought and it is challenging to modify the educational materials for the specific target audience. Strategic planning is necessary to ensure adequate learning for the special needs of the audience. I have learned that one must assess the audience’s psychological, social, developmental, and cultural influences prior to developing the educational material.

The point of this assignment is to able to Archives the Shape America Health Literacy, October month twitter chat in Storify that panelist have done @SHAPE America twitter webpage so that anyone, anywhere, anytime can go back to check the stream of conversation or the summary and gain an insight into the topic that was discussed.

Let’s say your doctor states that you required surgery, would you know what to ask or what exactly happens next; many people don’t. You should be considering on getting a second opinion, what are the risk if I do, or do not have the surgery? Is there an alternative to surgery? What are the statistics of survival, or cure? These are the types of questions you should be asking yourself and your doctor. Both you and your doctor should be working together on ways to proceed, it should never be a one-sided conversation but often it is. Unfortunately question like these never get asked. There is a blind trust we have when it comes to our doctors. Sadly, doctors are not always looking after the interest of their patients, at times they practice a phenomenon call “defensive medicine” which refers to the practice of recommending a diagnostic test or treatment that is not the best option for the patient, but one that protects the physician against the patient as a potential plaintiff. (Gigerenezar, 2011) Defensive medicine leads to over prescribing unnecessary test, medications and surgeries, which will then lead to malpractice lawsuits and ultimately an increase in healthcare cost. Are goal in this presentation is to bring awareness, as well as provide the readers with ways to combat the health literacy epidemic. We will do

I created a lesson plan for my third grade health literacy class. This lesson plan is targeted for third grade students in the general education classroom. In my classroom I have an abundance of diversity with different types of learners. My classroom makeup consist of two English language learners in which I have adapted materials for the personal hygiene lesson.

Mitic and Rootman (2012), discuss six reasons why health literacy is important. First, approximately 60% of Canadians are unable to understand and make decisions regarding their health. Second, having a lack of health literacy can lead to having poor health outcomes. For example, if a person does not fully understand their chronic disease, such as diabetes, they may not have the proper self-management skills to cope with the disease which could potentially result in hospitalization. The second reason goes hand-in-hand with the third reason of increasing rates of chronic diseases. With a lack of understanding, people may not know how to prevent or manage the chronic disease causing it to escalate to something more serious and may result in death. Low health literacy can also lead to extra costs spent on health care. Mitic and Rootman (2012), state that the additional expenses “ranged from 3 to 5% of the total health care cost per year”. This is due to people having a lack of understanding and require more health care attention than someone who has a higher health literacy. Also, with the advances of access to health information, the terminology used is often high-level and hard for most people

patients who have limited knowledge of medical information may face difficulty in accessing health care, following the treatment recommendations, and instructions. In addition, patients may feel