1. What is Health Literacy? Populations Most at Risk
Health Literacy: A Path to Better Healthcare
Jamie McDonald, B.A & Alicia Curran, B.S. , Stan Hudson, M.A.
Training in Interdisciplinary Partnerships and Services for Kids, Missouri Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities
What is Health Literacy?
Populations Most at Risk
Results of Low Health Literacy
Health Literacy is the degree to which the health system provides adequate support to allow people to understand, obtain, and process basic health information and healthcare services to make appropriate choices.
Health literacy includes the ability to read and understand:
Prescriptions
Directions
Medical forms
Patient education materials
Low socioeconomic status
Low level of education
People with chronic health conditions
People with disabilities
Racial and ethnic minorities
Over the age of 65
A person with low or limited health literacy will have:
A higher use of treatment services, hospital visits, and emergency services
Higher cost of healthcare
Medication errors
More likely to have a chronic condition
A lower use of prevention services
Continuing the cycle of low literacy from generation to generation
Low health literacy in the US is causing an economic inefficiency of 106 billion to 238 billion dollars, annually.
Health Literacy in the US
Map to Improving
Health Literacy
Only 12 percent of U.S. adults have proficient health literacy. Over a third of U.S. adults (77 million people) have difficulty with common health tasks, such as following directions on a prescription drug label or adhering to a childhood immunization schedule using a standard chart.
Which of these children will struggle with health literacy in the future?
Since health literacy is context specific, all of them could experience low health literacy at some time in their lives. We can address this by recognizing potential health literacy challenges patients face and developing health literacy protocols and supports for all patients, family members, and caregivers.
Creating print/oral/electronic medical Information no higher than a 5th grade reading level
Providing education to improve health literacy
Create a health literacy improvement plan, which focuses on:
Team awareness
Solid plan for implementation
Teach back
3 focus points
Encouraging questions
Action plans for patients
Patient feedback
Cultural Awareness
Review current medical material and create new material
Follow up with patient
References
1. Kutner , M., Greenberg, E., Jin, Y., & Paulsen, C. (2006). The health literacy of America’s adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NCES ). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.
2. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2010). National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy. Washington, DC.
3. America's Health Literacy: Why We Need Accessible Health Information. An Issue Brief From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
AHRQ Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit. Content last reviewed November Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant #T73MC00022, Missouri LEND. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.