The Importance Of Health Literacy

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

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

Literacy is the ability to read and write, and it is based on different competency of individuals. Health literacy is a term that has been used in health literature for more than 35 years. In the United States, health literacy is used to explicate and describe the correlation between patient literacy levels and their ability to adhere with prescribed therapeutic regimens (Ad Hoc Committee on Health Literacy, 1999). Likewise, health literacy is also defined as the grade to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions (IOM, 2004) (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2000). Health literacy is also influenced by individual literacy skills and individual capacities (Baker, Gazmararian, Sudano & Patterson, 2000). This study is important due to the high number of patients with difficulty interpreting and understanding common prescription drug labelled instructions. It can be inferred that

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

“Health Literacy” a term to define literacy in healthcare. “An estimated 90 million people in the U.S. have difficulties understanding and using health information” (Hawkins, Kantayya and Sharkey-Asner, 2010). Low health literacy poses public health risks due to groups of people not being able to adequately care for themselves and stay healthy. This paper argues the importance of literacy as it pertains to health and also explores the various types of literacy that can impact how health information is received and understood from the general public.

Background: Health literacy presents a huge challenge in the delivery of effective healthcare and quality outcomes. We evaluated association between low health literacy and healthcare utilization.

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.

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.

Health literacy is the ability to read, comprehend, and utilize healthcare information in order to make health related decisions based on the individual 's interpretation of this information (Eadie, 2014). This includes the individual 's ability to "perform Internet searches, reading health prevention pamphlets, measuring medication doses, and understanding and complying with verbal or written health care instructions" (Eadie, 2014, p. 10). These barriers significantly affect patient safety and require intervention from health care professionals. As we have learned in our previous theory courses, many individuals experience some form of limited health literacy; however, "the Institute of Medicine reports that 90 million American adults lack basic health literacy" (as cited in Eadie, 2014, p.10).

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).

According to Singleton and Krause (2010), health literacy can be defined as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions” (p.

Nearly half of all 90 million American adults have problems understanding and using health information, and there is a higher percentage of hospitalizations and use of emergency departments among patients with deficits in health literacy (Wojciechowski & Cichowski, 2007). Health literacy is defined as the ability to which individuals are capable of obtaining, processing, and understanding basic information and needs to make appropriate decisions about their health.

Healthcare literacy is a major challenge in America today, but many Americans do not know what healthcare literacy entails. The World Health Organization (2009) defines health literacy “the degree to which people are able to access, understand, appraise, and communicate information to engage with the demands of different health contexts to promote and maintain good health across the life-course.”

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