Introduction
Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to obtain, communicate, synthesize and understand the basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions to benefit their health (About health literacy, 2013). Being able to communicate, process and interpret health information helps individuals learn the essential steps needed to make sound decisions that will prolong lives. Low health literacy has negative impacts on an individual's health status and their ability to access health care and other health services and resources around them. The majority of Canadians who are considered to have lower health literacy are seniors followed by adults (Romagnoli, 2013). Roughly, 88% of seniors and 60% of adults in Canada are health illiterates (About Health Literacy, 2013). It is estimated that six out of ten Canadian adults lack the literacy skills needed to adequately manage their health and health care needs (Fact sheet, 2008). Research has shown that Canadians with lower health literacy skills are more than 2.5 times more likely to have poor health compared to Canadians with higher health literacy due to their inability to process and understand health related materials (Fact sheet, 2008). This paper aims to emphasize the role and importance of health literacy in relation to sexually transmitted infections in youth and the promotion of sexual health among the elderly.
Role of Health Literacy in Relation to STI’s ans Sexual Health Promotion
Sexually transmitted infections and sexual health promotion among individuals are sensitive Public Health issues that need to be addressed with care (STI’s in Niagara youth, 2014). Many people find it really difficult to talk about thei...
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...ly transmitted infections and improving the health of the population (Nutbeam, 2006).
Conclusion
Health literacy plays a critical role in our everyday knowledge about health. In Canada, a large proportion of seniors and adults are considered to be health illiterate. Lower health literacy means poor health due to the fact that people with low health literacy have difficulties accessing and using health information to make informed decisions about their health. Health literacy uses plain language to transmit sensitive information about the benefits, the risk and where individuals can access health information to improve their sexual health. This encourages people to seek information, navigate the health system care, engage in meaningful conversation with physicians, health promoters and educators and adopt behaviors that will enhance their sexual and overall health.
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Ministry of Health. (2010). Korero Marama Health Literacy and Maori Results from the 2006 Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey. Retrieved from Minstry of Health: http://www.health.govt.nz/publication/korero-marama-health-literacy-and-maori-results-2006-adult-literacy-and-life-skills-survey
All individuals across the world strive to acquire high levels of competence and literacy across all aspects of education. It is human nature to maintain good health, and to educate ourselves on how to sustain prominent, fulfilling lifestyles. In application to health, the first step in achieving adequate health requires one to know where to locate reliable information. Not only is it important to understand what it takes to create health, but also the process of preserving healthy habits at all times. The construct of Health Literacy illustrates this notion entirely—and can be defined as the capacity to obtain, communicate, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions (CDC.gov).
Taking care of our health is an essential portion of our life. In modern world, our healthcare system promotes and expects us as an individual to actively participate in our own health care, actively participate in decision-making, manage chronic conditions, follow up with medical care. Health literacy supports empowerment to take control of our own health. It involves not only the transmission of health information, but means to acquire the knowledge, abilities and needed skills to ensure on that knowledge to maintain health. Patient education that includes self-directing care and empowerment has showed thru the studies to be cost-effective. The knowledge, the skills of analysis, decision making acquired through health literacy,
Sexual transmitted diseases can be troublesome for everybody in life. A sexual transmitted disease (STD) or sexual transmitted infection (STI) is a disease or infection that is transmitted through any kind of sexual behavior. Some can be spread through the transfer of blood (Boudewyns, & Paquin, 3). It is especially problematic for students in college. Social and health problems tend to occur when young adults, in their undergraduate years in college, have unprotected sexual intercourse (Murray and Miller 1). College students are what will be making up society in the future; this is why STDs are such a serious threat. STDs do not discriminate. It can affect anybody. They need to be educated about STDs so they can be prevented. Unfortunately, it seems more college students are more concerned about the prevention of pregnancy, than of STDs (Murray and Miller 3). This is clearly a problem between the correlation of STDs and college students.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases or STDs are an increasing problem in today’s society. There are many of them and the number is increasing in the youth of the nation. According to a 2000 poll, 18.9 million cases were reported, and of that number, 9.1 million occurred in people between the ages of 15 to 24. America needs to recognize this problem more fully and find a cure for it. Abstinence is one way to help, but what people need to realize is that it is not working.
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).
Literacy is the ability to read, write, and speak a written language. Literacy is a vital aspect in society because it helps one advance their own knowledge and potential. One can also advance their own knowledge and potential through health literacy. According to Health.gov, “Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions” (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services). Health Literature is used daily to enrich one’s knowledge about old and new health information in the health community. Health literacy is an important aspect of all publications because it informs people about life-threatening or urgent
Not surprisingly the lack of useful sexual information is one of the reasons of the spreading sex related diseases. According to The American Social Health Association (1998) each year there are near ten million of new cases of sexually transmitted diseases among the teenage...
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
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). (2014). About health literacy. Retrieved from website: http://www.hrsa.gov/publichealth/healthliteracy/healthlitabout.html
Health literacy plays an important role in individuals’ decision-making. The scope of health literacy does not limit to traditional medical perspective. In fact, it has extended from the basic understanding of diseases and medications to all aspects that affect health. As one of the key social determinants, health literacy has huge impact on health and well-being. Its influence is associated with disease prevention, healthy lifestyle promotion, policy making, etc. This essay will first discuss the concept of health literacy and the consequences that link to it, and then give a strategy—designing user-centred messages in education, to improve health literacy,
Health education is one of the most controversial subjects taught in schools throughout the United States. Many people argue that the topics discussed in health classes do not have appropriate content for middle school and high school students to be learning. Despite the controversy surrounding these topics, health education is still an extremely important aspect of the middle school and high school curricula. Children are being exposed to alcohol, tobacco, and various drugs at earlier ages than ever before. Health education is the best vehicle to inform students of the dangers and consequences that are associated with these substances. Health education also allows students to become aware of the changes that will affect their minds and bodies as they continue to mature.
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 vitally this issues has become. (Younghee 2013) Sadly however, the ability 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 or health care costs as well as poor decision making regarding health care. (Mancuso 2011) Yet the fact is that over the years at local, state, and institutional levels, health educators have been very successfully advocating to influence smoking regulations, child safety seat policies, nutrition policies, and many other health policies and regulations still a stunning “98.0%” of them report “barriers to policy activity”. (Bliss 2013)
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.