Health Literacy in the U.S.
Health literacy is the ability of someone to acquire and
understand health services and health information to help him or her make
perfect health decisions. Health literacy is very important for every
individual since at some point in our lives, we may need to have the ability to
find, process, understand and also use health information and services. Taking
care of your health is part of everyday life. You don’t just take care of your
health when you visit a hospital or clinic. Health literacy can help you
prevent health problems, manage your health and even manage situations that may
arise due to health problems. You should know that people who lack skills
needed to manage their health and prevent disease pose dangers to their lives
and lives of people they are caring for. Health literacy is measured in levels
or groups such as:
·
Proficient
·
Intermediate
·
Basic
·
Low basic
Public health systems and healthcare institutions play a big
role in health literacy since they can either make it easy or more difficult
for people to obtain and use health services and information. According to U.S
national data, there is available health information which is too hard for
average Americans to use and make appropriate health decisions.
Limited health literacy is not a disease one can see easily.
In fact, you cannot tell one has limited health literacy by simply looking on
his or her face. Health literacy is based on the context. Even those who have
strong literacy skills can sometimes experience health literacy challenges such
as:
· They are not used to medical terms or even know
how their bodies work.
· They have to interpret some risks or number to
help make appropriate health care decisions
· They have complex diseases or conditions that
may need complicated self-care
· They are diagnosed with serious diseases and get
confused or scared
Below is a summary of recent key findings by the National
Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) on health literacy in the U.S:
·
Limited health literacy is a problem for adults
in all racial and ethnic groups. The proportion of elderly people with below
basic or basic health literacy ranges from 28% of white elderly people to 65%
Hispanic elderly people.
·
Only 12% of American adults have proficient
health literacy. 77 million adults from the U.S experience difficulty with
common health tasks such as following childhood immunization schedule by use of
a standard chart or following drug prescription directions found on a
prescription drug label.
·
Even though 50% of U.S adults without a high
school education have below basic health literacy skills, even college and high
school graduates can also have limited health literacy.
·
All U.S adults, regardless of their health
literacy level, are more likely to acquire health information from friends,
radio, television, health professionals and family than from print media.
Health Literacy
Survey Results
According to NAAL everyone needs health information that is
easy to understand and use to make perfect health decisions. Limited health
literacy occurs when one’s numeracy and literacy skills are poorly matched with
the unfamiliar, complex and technical information that health organizations or
institutions make available. Limited health literacy also happens when health
services are too difficult or complex to understand and use effectively.
Limited health literacy is more common to adults who lack high school
education. However, high school or college graduate may experience limited
health literacy but not as low as adults.
Below are results of recent survey on health literacy in the
U.S:
1. Over a third of U.S adults (77milllion)
have below basic or basic health literacy
Only 12% of American adults had proficient health literacy
while more than a third of them were in the below basic (30 million) and basic
(47 million) health literacy levels. Majority of adults (53%) were in
intermediate health literacy level.
2. Health literacy affects all ethnic and
racial groups
According to a recent survey conducted by the Institute of
Education Sciences, National Assessment of Adult Literacy and U.S Department of
education, all U.S racial and ethnic groups contained adults with basic or
below basic literacy skills. White adults had the lowest proportion of 28%
adults at these levels of literacy, followed by black adults with a proportion
of 57%, Hispanic adults with 65% and other category (composed of Native
American, multi-racial and Asian adults) with 34%.
3. Lower health literacy is mostly associated
with little education
Majority of U.S adults who had limited health literacy had
low level of education. More than a quarter of U.S adults who had less than
high school degree, had basic or below basic health literacy levels. Though
health literacy increased with increase in level of education, 12% of college
graduates and 44% of high school graduates had basic or below basic health
literacy.
4. Adults with Medicare or without health
insurance had lowest health literacy
According to NAAL, adults who are enrolled in Medicaid and
Medicare and those who are not insured are more likely to be at basic or below
basic level of health literacy compared to those who receive insurance from
their employers. About ¼ of people with employment-based insurance were in
basic or below basic level of health literacy. More than ½ of Medicare
beneficiaries, uninsured persons and Medicaid beneficiaries were in these
groups as well.
5. Health literacy varies directly with age
Elderly people were found to have the lowest health
literacy. Adults who are 65 years and above are more likely to have basic or
below basic health literacy compared to those under 65 years. More than 2/3 of
adults aged 75 years and above had basic or below basic health literacy. Age
did not affect health literacy for individuals below 65 years.
6. Non-print media was the major source of
health information
Elderly people at all levels of health literacy used
different sources to obtain health information adults who had most limited
health literacy accessed health information though digital sources.
7. Adults track health indicators
34% of trackers say that it affects decision making when
treating diseases.40% of trackers said that it led to asking doctors new
questions.
Are limited literacy
and limited health literacy the same problem?
No, but they are closely related. Your writing, numbers and
reading skills are just a part of health literacy. You therefore need numeracy
skills and strong literacy to make it easier for you to understand and use
health services and information to make health decisions. Recent studies show
that healthcare and health activities are technical, complicated and unfamiliar
to most Americans.
Policy implications to address health literacy gap
To address health literacy gap, educators, policy makers,
healthcare professionals and health care administrators in the U.S came up with
the following strategies:
·
Promotion of universal access to health
information
·
Encourage non-governmental insures make
improvements and innovations
·
Promotion of health professional standards and health
education
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