What´s 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

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

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

Having a healthy population is becoming increasingly important across Australian communities (Baur, 2011). Health literacy is the cognitive and social skills, which enables and establishes the ability of individuals to gain access and comprehend the use of information, in ways that maintain and promote good

The financial consequences of low health literacy will affect society as a whole. Our health insurance will rise. The educational institute will be affect as they rewrite the health information in a simplistic format to make it possible for someone with low health literacy to understand the material. This is costly in printing but, also in educating the health professionals. According to the article, the cost of low health literacy annually per capita is $3,90 that is equivalent to the costs of health coverage for more than 60 million Americans. Personally, cost is not the only factor that affects society there is the problem of health risk to the public. Low health literacy patients wait until they are gravely ill to seek medical treatment

Furthermore, in order to educate the older adults, some teaching strategies are supposed to be acquired to enable them cope with their different deficiencies and still gather the necessary information they need to make healthy choices (Nair & Cienkowski, 2010). For health literacy to be efficient in the elderly, the nurses and health educators should always start looking at the history of their patients, short and long term deficiencies that they face, the effectiveness of their coping mechanism, what their needs are related to the cognitive functions, communication inadequacies, the amount of information they can take and how learning should be taught for different patients (Sabatini, et al. 2010). After all the necessary evaluation of the

Health literacy is defined 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" (Michael K. Paasche-Orlow, 2010), the word Health literacy first appeared in 1974 in a paper which calls for “education standards for all grade school levels in USA” (Carolyn Speros, 2004) . Some recent works suggest that there is a relation between literacy, low health and premature deaths (Christina Zarcadoolas et al, 2005).

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.

Healthy People 2010 define 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 care related decisions.” These are the skills that people need to find the right place in the hospital, fill out insurance forms, and communicate appropriately with

Health literacy has been identified as a fundamental area when it comes to the prevention of diseases and the promotion of health. The concept of health literacy is anchored on the strategies used to ensure that the population is able to not only access health services and programs but also apply the recommendations provided with the view to gaining an awareness or empowerment that will help people to make informed decisions (CDC, n.d.). Although much of the health literacy programs encompass the development of basic language as well as literacy skills, the concept of health literacy goes beyond the confines of reading and comprehending health information and messages to include "the educational, social, and cultural factors that influence

Health literacy is a term not widely understood by the general population. It is defined as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information needed to make appropriate health decisions and services needed to prevent or treat illness,” (About health literacy, 2014). A person’s level of health literacy is based on their age, education level, socioeconomic standing, and cultural background. Patients with low health literacy have a more difficult time navigating the health care system. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this group of patients may find it harder to find medical services and health care providers, fill out health forms, provide their

A  consistent issue pursuing in the health delivery system is that patients are going home overwhelmed and confused because their communication and understanding with doctors and other healthcare professionals is uncertain. With medicine and practices growing and more annual doctor visits becoming more frequent, health literacy is more important than ever. This gap between the client and the organization can drive an organization’s turn out rate through the roof.

Defining health literacy is a complex task, because ofthe many variables that contribute to its meaning.Some ofthe variables identifiedinclude: reading and writingcomprehension, ability tointerpret medical information and make informed decisions, cultural and language barriers, accession andexpense of treatment and assailablepopulations. All these components, among others, diminish capacity for insight forin-depth understanding.The World Health Organization defines health literacy as the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and abiltiyof individuals to gain access to understand and use information in way which promote and maintain good health (WHO, 1998). The Institute of Medicines defines the concept as the individuals