I am a student in the Health Studies doctoral program at Texas Woman's University. This blog will focus on the topic of health literacy. 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” (Healthy People 2020, 2012).
Health literacy is not the same as linguistic litearcy. For example, a person from another country who is educated in his or her own primary language and understands health information in that language, but comes to the United States with limited English proficiency has a problem with linguistic literacy. A person from the United States who is educated in the English language, but may not be familiar with medical terms or understand how their body works and is unable to evaluate the risks associated with their health or be able to vote on health issues that could affect them personally because of unfamiliarity with health information has a problem with health literacy (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) of 2003, the first large-scale national assessment in the United States to measure health literacy, 14 percent of adults (30 million Americans) had below basic health literacy, 22 percent had basic health literacy, 53 percent had intermediate health literacy and only 12 percent had proficient health literacy (Kutner, Greenberg, Jen & Paulsen, 2006).
Why should the public be concerned with health literacy? Studies have shown that those with low health literacy: were less likely to identify their blood pressure medication, had an annual health care cost four times greater than the general population, and have a 50% higher risk for cardiovascular mortality compared with those who had adequate health literacy skills (Persell, Osborn, Richard, Skripkauskas, & Wolf, 2007; Weiss & Palmer, 2004; Baker et.al., 2007).
Come back to my blog to learn more about health literacy!
(Check this video out for now)
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