Health Literacy Paper

I really enjoyed reading your post. This is a good example of how poor health literacy can have a detrimental effect on a patient’s health. In a journal article the authors stated that health literacy is a strong predictor of a person’s health status (Schwatz et al., 2013). As seen in the AMA video and in the example that given here, it is clear that health literacy has a direct effect on one’s ability to make important healthcare decisions. Your example also reminds me that fear may play a big role in health literacy and one’s ability to make healthcare decisions. Making healthcare decision for yourself at time can be a daunting task no matter the culture, level or education, of background. It is so important that providers consider

For one illiterate is 93% prevalence in the DHOH population as DHOH read below a 4th-grade level (Strong & Prinz, 1997). Two, physicians recommend health care service delivery for DHOH patients extend appointment time (Barnett, McKee, Smith & Pearson, 2011). In where, time is counted to repeat and review the health information needed (Barnett et al., 2011). Three, communicate health effect through visual aid to demonstrate observational learning techniques (Jurberg et al., 2013; Glanz & Bishop, 2010). The adjustment alleviates medical terminologies so that language does not hinder the affect of delivering health information (Strong & Prinz).

Outcomes Tools. Health promotion has countless significance when it relates to the healthcare profession, especially in patients diagnosed with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. A measurement tool to evaluate the health promotion behaviors is DMHP. The DMHP scale was created by Chia-Pei, Yun-Shing, Hsu-Huei, Hsiao-Yun, and Mei-Yen (2013) to measure health promoting behaviors in patients diagnosed with diabetes. The DMHP scale has been shown to be reliable and valid with a context validity index of 0.97 and an internal consistency cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.90.

What does it mean to be “health literate?” Someone who is health literate is able to “obtain, interpret, and understand basic health information and services and use such information and services in ways that promote his or her health and wellness.” Health literacy is very important to a person because it can prevent them from becoming unhealthy but a person can also use their health literacy to influence other people. A person’s health literacy can become better and stronger as they grow older because they learn new things and become more experienced with types of health problems.

All patients need support outside the primary care setting to make healthy choices. Literacy can affect many features of patients lives, and those with slight literacy are more likely to have more risk factors for poor health and social and economic well-being. Adults over age 65, some minority groups, and low-income individuals are more likely to have slight health literacy than others. These individuals may face a lot of obstacles to achieving the best health outcomes.

The communication between medical doctors and their DHOH patients is barriers due to miscommunication, and inability to comply with medical recommendation prevents adequate treatment (Barnett et al., 2011), regardless of health insurance access. Health insurance is independent to DHOH receiving preventable care since high illiteracy, low health literacy, are the factors to the preventable issues (Strong & Prinz, 1997; Barnett et al., 2011).

Medical Doctor, Barry Weiss, identify multiple populations that have low levels of health literacy. Those populations include: the elderly, minority groups, people with limited formal education, immigrants, poor and homeless persons, prisoners and military recruits. Those that are enlisted members of the armed forces have been shown to have low levels of literacy, affecting

Three health problems that are affecting the community are diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and asthma. Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects the pancreas. It is the body’s inability to produce insulin. During the past five years, diabetes is up on the rise. The disease is becoming an epidemic (Bingham, 2016). About 18 million people died from the disease annually. People are becoming increasingly overweight and obese. It has been argued that it is close to two billion people around the world who are over weight and over 300 million obese. It is estimated that over 2 hundred million people between ages 40 to 59 years old are diagnosed with diabetes and that number expected to increase to over 3 hundred million by 2025 (Bingham, 2016). Diabetes is one of the major health problem that is affecting the community I live.

The Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHOH) population are neglected sub-minorities and affected by cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This population is often ignorant of medical information about CVD. This issue is due to communication barriers, which limit access to health information (McKee et al., 2011). The inability to participate in health programs available to the general population, and lack English proficiency increase the risk of CVD in the DHOH communities (McKee et al., 2011). Moreover, the social economic status is too rooted in poverty that associates with unemployment and low education placing DHOH individuals at the low end of the social gradient. It costs over $30 billion each year to care and treat the DHOH people in the United

Health literacy as defined in Cromier & Kotrlik article “the ability to read, understand, and use health information to make appropriate health care decisions and follow instructions for treatment” (Cromier 2007). It is a problem that affects an estimated 47 million people in the US alone and costs an estimated 73 billion dollars a year. These costs come from increased hospitalizations, the use of less preventative medicine, as well as, the social stigma that comes with having poor health literacy stopping people from seeking treatment at all. Health literacy is an important skill that every person needs to effectively make decisions relating to health care, which includes not only general health, but also disease and illness management, and health plan management. It is a problem that nurses can help combat through the utilization of effective communication, the continuum of care, and as advocates for policy change. Effective communication includes both communications with the patient as well as other health providers. The continuum of care is primarily comprised of patient education and needs to include making sure patients understand what they are being taught. Lastly, nurses need to be involved in the avocation for policy change. That should include health facility policy, local policy, and national policy. These three critical areas can go a long way in improving the health literacy of the US and could potentially save the lives of many who are overlooked in the

Before working together with Denis the nursing professionals also assessed Denis’s current mental state, presentation and behaviours so that they could know or determine his level of understanding or health literacy. The report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) (2004, cited in Parker and Kindig, 2006, p. 891) 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.” The World Health Organisation (2015, p. 1) defines health literacy as “the cognitive and social skills which find the motivation and ability of people to gain access to, understand and use information in ways which promote and keep up good health.”

The distribution of participants by health literacy levels, demographic characteristics and oral health outcomes are summarized in Table 1. They were predominantly composed by women (64.0%) and white (79.2%) people, with a mean age of 37.52 y (±15.01), ranging from 18 to 80 years-old.

A thirty year old woman named Mary Nelson was involved in a motor vehicle accident and fracturing her jaw, left ulna, and left femur in the process. She has a lack of appetite because she does not like the taste of the prescribed liquid supplements and her jaw being wired shut. She is unable to communicate with other people and gets frustrated when no one is able to understand her. Also, she has a hard time moving places and standing up on her own because she fractured her left leg, arm, and hand. As the physician assistant of the team, I will examine, diagnose her injuries and illnesses, and provide treatment as she recovers from her accident. Physician assistants are part of the healthcare team who practice medicine with licensed physicians and provide primary care or specialized surgical care to patients. Their work in the hospital includes taking medical histories, order and interpret laboratory test and X-rays, and prescribe medications. They can also record progress notes, instruct and counsel patients, and order or carry out therapy. As the physician assistant of the team, I will able to give information to Ms. Nelson and answer her questions because I will have the most information about her health.

At the age of fifteen, my mother had just finished cooking dinner when I noticed her slurred speech and incoherent sentences. Flustered by the sequence of events, I dialed 911 for help. On the way to the hospital, I recall one of the EMS personnel shakily exclaim: “ her blood glucose is 899, she needs insulin ASAP.” Having no understanding of what any of this meant my anxiety multiplied and I was eager to understand why these abnormalities were occurring. At the hospital, the doctor addressed my mother with a sympathetic and yet assuring tone and stated: “Latrice, you have type 2 diabetes.” He went on to explain how her body was not utilizing insulin and as a result had high levels of blood glucose. Although the prescribed medication resulted in dramatic improvements in my mother’s condition, the confusion remained. I had no understanding of her condition or how medication alone helped to assuage her symptoms. The unanswered questions learned from this shocking experience precipitated a drive to learn more about the human body and health prevention.

The topic of health literacy has been a talking point in the medical field since the 90s, and has since then has been an important point of discussion.3 Literature review has provided numerous studies, experiments, and has cited many analyses of the health literacy of patients, and there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that is showing that the literacy of patients is important. Only 12 percent of adults are proficient in health literacy according to the National Adult Literacy Survey.3 In