How The Literacy Level Can Influence The Health Of The Patients Essay

From Baker’s study on health literacy (2006), it depicted the health literacy as active and dynamic status which gives the consumers the essential abilities to act effectively within the healthcare system. The patient’s levels of health literacy would vary related on different circumstances whether it is relied on the health professionals at the medical procedure, the shared information that contains the type of medical diagnosis of the patient and the signs and symptoms of medical condition that patient may experience.

The World Literacy Foundation released a report on illiteracy in 2012 sharing this devastating news, “Shockingly, more than 796 million people in the world cannot read or write. About 67 million children do not have access to a primary school education and another 72 million miss out on secondary school education” (Melbourne, “The Economic & Social Cost of Illiteracy”). Complete illiteracy is defined as, “a person who cannot read or write at all” (Melbourne, “The Economic & Social Cost of Illiteracy”). However, there is another kind of illiteracy. This illiteracy is commonly known as functional illiteracy. Function illiteracy, “means an individual may have basic reading, writing and numerical skills but cannot apply them to accomplish tasks that are necessary to make informed choices and participate fully in everyday life” (Melbourne, “The Economic & Social Cost of Illiteracy”). Illiteracy brings multiple negative effects to an individual and his or her family. The effects of illiteracy include: life threatening health issues, lower incomes and inability to succeed in his or her career, and it increases crime rates.

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

Low literacy affects many individuals within today’s society. The amount of individuals that are unable to comprehend medication labels, medication regimens, and learning points from discharge teaching is shocking and result in further health related injuries (Koh et al., 2012). Nurses must take the important task of recognizing an individual literacy and comprehension ability before planning the individual’s care plan. The nurse must find out the ways an individual can receive information that

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 %

A big problem today in health care for many people is health literacy. Health literacy is when a person is able to understand and process medical information they are given. Having low health literacy can affect how a person understands, and uses information about their health and health services (Batterham 2016). Low health literacy rates lead to big issues in communication. Limited literacy impacts health behaviors, decisions, and ultimately outcomes. Many people have low health literacy which leads to bad health outcomes. Research shows that low literacy is linked with the lower likelihood of people being able to manage their own health conditions, and less access to health care services which can lead to poor health outcomes. There are many reasons people have low health literacy, A lack of formal education and poor reading ability aren't the only causes of low health literacy. Low health literacy is associated with a number of things like poor engagement in health services, health knowledge, and overall health status. People with low health literacy may feel ashamed and try to hide it from professionals and family members. Most health care professionals are unaware of the level of health literacy their patient has. (Greenhalgh 2015) There is a need to identify individual health literacy needs and address how to work on solutions to benefit them and whole groups of people. Differences in health literacy

Sequist, Cullen, and Acton explain, “American Indians have nearly three times the national unemployment rate, and are less than half as likely to graduate from college” (2011, pp. 1967). With the low education levels that are common amongst this racial group, health care facilities need to make sure they are providing materials and teachings with appropriate fundamental literacy levels. In the book Advancing Health Literacy written by Zarcadoolas, Pleasant, and Greer, the authors describe fundamental literacy as, “The ability to read, write, speak, and work with numbers” (2006, pp. 56-57). As nurses, we need to be aware of others’ fundamental literacy to provide them with a sense of autonomy. If they are able to understand the materials they are reading, then they are able to make confident decisions about their care. In the nursing field, we provide many informational brochures, and are responsible for making sure our patients understand the plan of care. The text provided for our clients should be at an eighth-grade level, or personalized to each patient’s level. Nurses need to make sure they are conversing and explaining with no medical jargon, and allowing time for questions from the

Medical care will only become more complex (Lyckholm, et. al, 2001). Therefore, the need for continued education amongst each other and healthcare organizations is important in limiting issues that may affect standards of care.

A current pressing matter in the healthcare field is making sure that older adults understand their whole healthcare continuum. Older adults being illiterate on their health care is preventable reoccurring issue. There are many different angles for individuals in the healthcare field to limit this issue. This is sometimes not only related to a language barrier, processing issue, but sometimes a cultural barrier as well. Not all cultures understand widely held American medicine beliefs (Center for Disease Control, 2009).The Department of Health and Human Services, ( all of the D.H.H.S citation is from the article you sent me, still deciding which source to use.) article suggested a few options promoting more accessible information, addressing

Though the patients and parents are not the target audience and compromising to this demographic may lose some of the intended audience. So in the end the Hardings probably made the right choice. They also chose to write the article in a passive voice so words such as I, you, or we but rather he, she, or their were not included. Which is true to how nurses have to document helping build the trust of the intended audience. The sentences are fairly long with about 20 words per sentence. Using the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Age equation I can deduce the reading level is a collegian level. This is appropriate because again this is intended for nurses who have to complete at least an associate's degree. Looking at the reading level I’m surprised I was able to read it fairly painlessly though every once and while it was difficult due to passive voice.

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

This will lead to more appropriate interventions being implemented and thereby reducing anxiety and promoting favorable outcomes.   Study Two › Dependent variable - level of health literacy › Independent variables - poor health outcomes and high hospitalization rates › Though not explicit, the hypothesis appears to me to be that the prevalence of limited health literacy in hospitalized patients is high and many patients rely on others to aid in their understanding of health information (Morris, Grant, Repp, MacLean, & Littenburg, 2011). › Low health literacy levels have a direct impact on poor health outcomes such as higher rates of hospitalization and

Summary: By understanding what motivates patients to look for or avoid information beyond being medical consulted is necessary in order for supply effective information for the patients’ needs and

There is often a language gap between the Lay persons, often referred to as Consumers and health care professionals. The two groups may use different sets of terminology or expression for the same medical concept or the same medical problem. Studies suggest that lay people have difficulty comprehending medical jargon used by medical professional and that always deters from effective health information seeking on the Internet and communication between patients and their health care providers.