Health Literacy
Health literacy is vital to navigate the healthcare system in the United States. The AMA defines health literacy as “a constellation of skills, including the ability to perform basic reading and numerical tasks required to function in the healthcare environment” (American Medical Association Ad Hoc Committee on Health Literacy for the Council on Scientific Affairs, 1999, p. 553). Additionally, The WHO defines health literacy as “the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand, and use information in ways that promote and maintain good health” (WHO, 1998, p. 10). In short, health literacy is the scope to which people are able to digest information regarding healthcare and make adequate healthcare decisions.
Although health literacy is a necessity to gaining access to healthcare services, rates of health literacy are impacted by a few factors: age, minority status, education level, and persons with chronic disease (DeWalt et al.) The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing outlines three factors to discuss health literacy.
First, they outline obtaining information. Information is the best way to increase health literacy as patients who may not understand particular health terms or have difficulty processing complex medical paperwork will gain a vast amount of knowledge from learning more about relevant information. However, OJIN notes that most people without health literacy do not have access to the internet and receive all information from their healthcare provider, who they may have a hard time trusting.
Next, processing and understanding information is integral to health literacy. Although a patient may have received information, they must next digest the information in an accurate way. Helping people process information accurately can be difficult due to the tendency to agree to understanding information without accurately processing it. Thus, providers must ensure that those at risk of possessing low health literacy are accurately being educated and confirm that they have understood.
Finally, OJIN discusses using information. It is not enough to just obtain and process information. People of all levels of health literacy must be able to apply their knowledge in a way that will help them make better healthcare decisions.
By: Sreenidhi Saripalli
