health literacy

Introduction

The degree to which a person can obtain, process & understand health information in order to make informed health decisions

Epidemiology

• 12% of US population considered health literate for complex medical decisions
• 53% of US population considered health literate for most medical decisions
• 36% of US with inadequate health literacy
• elderly with low health literacy are more likely to
  • have a lower income
  • have achieved lower education,
  • rate their health as fair or poor
  • have sensory impairment (hearing impairment or vision impairment)

Clinical significance

• health literacy is a determinant in patient's participation in their own healthcare
• low health literacy can interfere with ability of patients to understand treatment plans & result in poor health outcomes & ineffective use of healthcare resources
• low health literacy is the most common cause of medical non-compliance
• lower health literacy associated with higher risk of medication errors
• higher health literacy associated with better health outcomes
• low health literacy is associated with elevated all-cause mortality
• screening for low health literacy will not improve medical compliance

Management

• elderly with low health literacy may need assistance with:
  • filling out medical forms
  • following the instructions on their medication bottles
  • understanding written & verbal information presented to them by their health care provider

Notes

• health professionals have difficulty detecting low health literacy in elderly patients
• patients may do their best to hide their health literacy from health professionals
• patients with low health literacy come from all social, ethnic, & racial backgrounds & may function well in other domains
• distrust of the medical system & denial of illness are factors that contribute to low health literacy (GRS11)

Additional terms

• health
• health care