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

·         Give health literacy a high priority as a part of disparities initiatives

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