In today’s world, the genres of literacy are gradually expanding and growing due to technological advances and the ever-changing world. Instead of just being literate where an individual can read and write there are many different types of literacies that are being used in today's world. One such example of a type of literacy that is used today is health literacy. Health literacy is amount of information an individual has in understanding the basic health information and services which can be taking the proper amount of medication or knowing your symptoms to live a longer and healthier life. Health literacy includes numeracy skills. For example, people may have to calculate their cholesterol and blood sugar levels, measuring the amount of …show more content…
In addition to these basic literacy skills, health literacy also requires the knowledge of health topics. People with limited health literacy often lack knowledge or are misinformed about the body as well as the types and causes of disease. Without having this knowledge, they lack the knowledge that there is a relationship between lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise and the effects that an unhealthy lifestyle may cause greater risk of diseases and poor health effects. Health literacy is a new idea in health promotion research and some recent works suggests that there is a relationship between literacy and the health level of an individual. (Zarcadoolas, Pleasant & Greer, 2005). Having a better understanding of health literacy is very crucial nowadays as there are many kinds of health care plans, medical advances requiring the knowledge to use new medical devices, and with improved health literacy individuals will be able to live healthier lifestyles and in turn it would reduce the costs of …show more content…
Literacy is an essential basic skill that is required for health literacy and an individual's life and health reflects the relationship between their health and literacy. Literacy has much more influence upon health than any other variables and other factors such as an individual’s age or race. People with low literacy may have trouble in understanding the information related to health matters and may misuse or misunderstand medical prescriptions, and instructions that are provided by their healthcare provider or medical personnel. There are also discriminations in an individuals’ ability to read or to understand the information that is available to them which relates to personal care and health care services which also contribute to the disparities seen in health (Gazmararian et al., 2005). It was found that people with poor literacy are misusing the preventive measures by not taking the vaccinations that they are required and most people have never even gone to take screening tests, body fluid tests, or even imaging tests to evaluate whether or not they have a disorder or are at risk of a
pp. 197-205 Singleton, K., & Krause, E. (2009). Understanding cultural and linguistic barriers to health literacy. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 14(3). United Nations.
The World Health Organization (WHO) (2010) defines obesity and being overweight as an abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health. Body mass index (BMI) as Arterburn et al (2008) put forward is a measure of body fat based on height and weight and further suggest that any individual with a BMI of more than 30 is considered as obese. Tannahill et al (1999) advocate that health education could be viewed as communication activity aimed at enhancing positive health and preventing ill health in individuals and groups by influencing their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviour of persons with power and of the community. Butler et al (2008) defines health prevention as the measures for early detection of departure from good health. Whereas Heath (2002) concurs that the role and function of the nurse emphasise on health promotion and illness prevention, the Department of Health (2010) emphasises on the prevention of diseases, prolonging life and promoting health rather than treatment.
According to Penner et al. (2013), there are various causes of healthcare disparities, such as socioeconomic status; this results to poor healthcare services for people with low socioeconomic status, as people with low pay find it difficult to leave their work to seek healthcare help, or to afford healthcare insurance (p.4). The second cause is language proficiency. The language barriers faced by the immigrant plays a role in the healthcare disparities among the racial or ethnic minority patients. Another cause is health literacy. The levels of the health literacy among the foreign born individuals can be influenced by their higher level of distrust of the healthcare providers and healthcare system than they have towards Caucasian people. This, in turn, leads them to seek healthcare information less often than their Caucasian counterparts, thus hindering the provision of quality services, as well as limiting the foreign patients’ ability to manage their health conditions effectively. The foreigners’ failure to easily accept the information provided to them by healthcare providers puts them at risk. Disentangling the role of health literacy in racial healthcare disparities from the effects of racial attitudes and beliefs is often hard (Penner et al,
Conaty-Buck, S. (2009). Unblocking barriers: Clearing the channel to improve communication between practitioners and patients with low health literacy. (Order No. 3364864, University of Virginia). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 121. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.uproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/docview/305011452?accountid=14694. (305011452).
However, health literacy is more than just read and write; it is the ability to understand and able to use health information to make choices about their health (Benyon, 2014). Low health literacy can have detrimental effect on the health of the client because it may cause misunderstand of the medical label or health information. According to McMurray & Clendon (2015), health literacy divided into three different levels which are functional, interactive/communicative and critical health literacy. As for functional levels, it is the most general and fundamental level for the general public because individuals need to receive and understand the information of health such as risk of health decision, consent forms, health instruction or medicine labels. (McMurray & Clendo , 2015) Turning to the next level, interactive/communicative health literacy, mainly involved personal skills to spread health knowledge to the community, and also , people are able to influence social norm and help others individuals to develop their personal health capacity. Because of this, understanding of how organization work and resounding communication skill which can help to support others and knowing how to get different health services other individuals need (McMurray & Clendo , 2015). The third level is critical health literacy, mainly divided to
There has been a significant increase in the interest of health literacy as a field of study. Recent research indicates that low levels of health literacy are prevalent in the general population, in Western countries. People with inadequacy in comprehending health information materials may find it difficult to make good use of such materials. As a result, more weight is needed on the health literacy by conducting vigorous research on the area to improve health care provision to the growing community. The study analyses patient education materials about reading level among the public.
Merging multi-literacies in Health and Physical Education could allow students to talk about topics of the genre more successfully and have knowledge of Health and Physical Education terms and language in daily life. According to Nutbeam (2000) interactive health literacy is a term which outlines the individual inspiration to maintain personal health. By teaching skills in the primary years to communicate and cope with health issues and physical activity will assist students in the schools of South Australia to know their personal requirements.
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 complete medical history with their providers, seek preventative care, understand the health risks associated with some behaviors, taking care of chronic health conditions, and understanding how to take prescribed medications (About health literacy, 2014). It is to a certain extent the patient’s responsibility to increase their own health literacy knowledge. But to what extent can they learn on their own? Those working in the health field have been trained to navigate the health system and understand the medical terms. They have the knowledge and capability to pass on that understanding to their patients. Health care professionals have a shared responsibility to help improve patients’ health literacy.
Literacy itself is a big problem for the Haitian population; besides, only 49% of the population can read and write. Which means the literacy rate is 61% which led to a number that is way below the 90% of the Latin American and Caribbean countries. Furthermore, only 61% of children can read and write at a third-grade level (Helm, 2016). With that said, it may be difficult to conduct a need assessment in Haiti before develop any needed health policy to increase awareness. For example, a reliable research study should include providing written survey to the target population, however, in Haiti, to communicate with those in need indeed, there must be a one on one style of communication since reading is almost not an option, and it could be very
This becomes an issue because written medical pamphlets, instructions, etc. are presented at a 10th grade stratum; for older patients this becomes an issue because they will only comprehend based on their cognition (hearing and vision) (SAFEER & KEENAN, 2005). Literacy insufficient patients are more probable to be hospitalized as opposed to those who are sufficient in medical terminology (SAFEER & KEENAN, 2005). This inability would lead patients to not attend appointments due to the inability to navigate the health insurance process or it could lead to inability to adequately follow prescription directions (SAFEER & KEENAN, 2005). My deduction is that this does lead to a lack of power on the patients’ end; it leads them to having to feel lost and to guess what to do in uncertain situations which can be a risky
NASW (2008) has identified universal access to health and mental health care as one of social work’s top priorities. National and international initiatives to improve health literacy among the general public are congruent with NASW’s goal. Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand health information and services that are needed to make appropriate health decisions (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2000). Low levels of health literacy contribute to worse health outcomes, including increased incidence of chronic illness and less than optimal use of preventive services; yet interventions to address low literacy show promise for improving individual health and receipt
Health education is an integral part of overarching health promotion interventions that do take part in numerous countries in different settings such as schools, workplaces, clinics and communities that encompass topic such as eating healthily, physical activity, misuse of drugs and alcohol prevention, mental health, safety and HIV/AIDS prevention. People involved in the dissemination of such information and activities are usually perceived as health educators, who are usually dedicated, hardworking and display a lot of enthusiasm (WHO, 2012). Notwithstanding the overall good initiatives, there are inevitably challenges as regards to effective engagement practice and how meaningful the education can contribute to health well being and lead
More than 40 years ago, the term of health literacy introduced for the first time (1, 2) and as a means to enhance health outcomes and alleviate health inequalities has been considered for its significant role in health education and health promotion (3). Regard to the complex and evolving concept of health literacy and based on different perspectives, various definitions have been developed (1, 4, 5). However, it usually refers to personal competencies for access to, process and act on health information and services to make sound decisions and maintain good health (6). Most of the health literacy studies took place in medical setting showed that low health literacy is resulted in poorer health outcomes, health disparities, and increased health
Health is a vital component in our everyday life. If it is compromised, everything else goes down with it. Health affects an individual drastically; therefore, it is imperative that we take good care of our bodies in order to maintain normal body functions that can help us go through our normal day-to-day lives without fail. There are many factors that can affect health--one of them is Education. Health education feeds emotions that will motivate us to do a better job at being caretakers of ourselves. It can therefore, be said that health education can encourage people to act on their own personal health.
There has been a great deal of attention given by individuals, the media and by the government to Health Education. There is no doubt that a population which is “health literate” is significant for the sake of the “public health as a whole and consequently for public finances”(Tappe 2013) (Younghee 2013). Many countries, including the U.S., have realized just how vital these issues have become. Sadly however, the ability to understand basic health information, with or without health education, as well as access and process the services is only possessed by “50%”of the American public, resulting in the escalation of health care costs as well as poor decision making regarding health care.