Health Literacy in the USA

wellness Literacy in the USASocial Determinants of wellnessConstantin VintilescuHealth LiteracyPredicting future trends in any profession cautions careful check out of present and ultimo trends. Over the last two decades, wellness care in the United States has undergone major changes due to simultaneous advances in the fields of health information and information technology. Advances in health care and life expectancy also maintain created dramatic changes. Subsequent gains in life expectancy choose surpassed the gains achieved, amid the long time 1940 and 1964 with the advent of antibiotics. In fact, recent gains have exceeded that of any former(a)(a) time this century. The life expectancy projections for the rest of this century may twist around out to be even to a greater extent of import. The educations of the public about health literacy issues and the rights of the elderly have become another dimension of advancement, along with the rights of patients and minority gro ups including the physically handicapped.In the United States, the term literacy is generally defined as the ability to read and speak English (Andrus, 2002). In the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), the U.S. surgical incision of Education (1993) defined literacy as the ability to use printed and create verbally information to function in society, to achieve ones goals, and to develop ones knowledge and potential. Although no precise point defines the difference between literacy and illiteracy, the comm wholly accepted working definition of what is meant to be literate is the ability to write and to read, understand, and give information pen at the eight-grade level or above.Health literacy refers to how well an individual can read, interpret, and comprehend the health information for maintaining an optimal level of wellness. It is an indwelling aspect for access to health care and health-related services.Limited health literacy leads to poor health outcomes. In fact, literacy skills are a stronger predictor of an individuals health status than age, income, employment status, education level, and racial or ethnic group (Weiss, 2003).Health literacy is also important for peoples maintenance of health and wellness. Health literacy is very important because requires peoples to have a more active role in health decision and their management.Based on available statistics over the past twenty years, it is evident that the United States has significant health literacy problems. Health literacy has been termed the silent epidemic, the silent barrier, the silent disability, and the dirty little secret (Conlin Schumann, 2002). In fact, the United States only ranked among the middle of other industrialized nations in most measures of adult literacy and yet many of our educators, elected representatives, and social advocates have remained blind on this significant problem (Kogut, 2004).Over the past two decades, the literacy of the American population has b een the subject of increasing interest and concern by educators as well as by government officials, employers, and the media. Health literacy continues to be a major problem in the United States despite public efforts to address the issue and developing health literacy schooling programs. In our society, many people do not possess the basic literacy to navigate the increasingly complex health care field. Some people have difficulty in knowledge and comprehending information well enough to be able to fill out job and indemnity applications, tax forms, or expend for a drivers license.In the early 1980s, President Reagan launched the National Adult Literacy Initiative, which was fol measlyed by the United Nations declaration of 1990 as the world(prenominal) Literacy year (Belton, 1991).In light of the relatively recent attention given to health literacy in the last twenty years, we must acknowledge the efforts of two organizations Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc., and Lauback Literacy external that served for many years as advocates for the most marginalized adult populations in United States and around the globe. Of particular concern to the health care industry are the numbers pool of consumers who are illiterate, functionally illiterate, or marginally literate. People with poor reading and comprehension skills have disproportionately higher medical checkup costs, increased number of hospitalizations, readmissions, and more perceived physical and psychosocial problems than do literae persons (Baker, 1998). Today the health care literacy problem has grave consequences, because patients are expected to assume right for their self-care and health promotion. If people with low literacy abilities cannot in full benefit from given information, then they cannot be expected to maintain their health independently.Computer literacy is also an increasingly popular concern of health literacy. umteen health care providers and consumers are relying on compute rs as educational tools. Those clients who are well educated and career oriented are already likely to protest a computer and be computer literate, but those with limited resources, literacy skills, and technological know-how are being left behind (Zarcadoolas et al., 2006).Health care providers relied for many years on printed education brochures as a cost-effective way to communicate health instructions with people. For many years, nurses and doctors thought that written materials given to the patients were sufficient to go through informed consent for different test or procedures. This way they promoted compliance with treatment regimens and discharge instructions. Kessels (2003) pointed out that 40-80% of medical information provided by health professionals is forget immediately, because not only medical terminology is too difficult to understand, but also because too much information contributes to poor recall. He also observe that half of the information remembered is inco rrect.Recently the health care providers have begun to realize that if the scientific and technical terminology in education materials are not written at a level and style appropriate for their intended audiences, people cannot be expected to be able or willing to accept responsibility for self-care.In improving written health materials and in implementing health education it is important to know the literacy skills of the patients in the community and their families. Nurses play an important role in assessing patients literacy skills because nurses interact more with the patients and their families than the physicians do. The nurses can evaluate the ability of the healthcare client to understand printed health information by assessing the patients comprehension and reading skill level. There are specific guidelines for writing effective health education materials and teaching strategies for patients and their families. An individuals functional health literacy is likely to be signi ficantly worse than his or her general literacy skills, because of the more complicated language used by health care providers.Now that manage care insurance companies are requiring subscribers to take more responsibility for their self-care, poor health literacy can increasingly lead to negative consequences and escalated morbidity, and mortality. People with low health literacy dont have knowledge or are misinformed about the body and the causes of illnesses. Because they do not have the proper knowledge, they dont understand the relationship between lifestyle factors, like diet and exercise, and wellness .Those people with limited knowledge may not know how to seek care.Health literacy tactics that improve written health materials may includeWritten health materials should have plain language for better understanding and ease of sharing with people.Written health materials should be scientifically accurate and culturally appropriate.If the client does not fluently speaks English, provide the written health information in his/hers native language.If such information is unavailable, and a translator must be employed, it is critical to assess the clients understanding of the written material.Written health information should include pictures for better understanding. in the flesh(predicate) electronic devices such as cell phones, tablets, palm pilots, and talking kiosks can be a new method for sending health information to the patients. in advance health providers make a health education brochure, they should also consider alternate methods such as individual, group, organizational, community and mass media.Use a brusque brochure that presents bottom line information, systematic instructions, and uses pictures with visual cues that highlight most important information to be absorbed.Health brochures should align health information with recommendations to services, resources, and other available support.Removing the barrier to communication between individuals and health care providers is a good opportunity for nurses to function as facilitators and work in collaboration with other health care professionals for improvement of quality of care. As Advanced Practice Nurses, it is our mandated responsibility to teach in non-complicated terms so our patients can understand an fully benefit from our nursing interventions.ReferencesAndrus, M.R., Roth, M.T. (2002). Health literacy A review. Pharmacotherapy, 22(3), 282- 302.Baker, D. W., Parker,R. M., Williams , M. V, Clark , W. S. (1998). Health literacy and the risk of hospital admission. Journal of Internal Medicine, 13, 791-798.Belton, A. B. (1991).Reading levels of patients in a general hospital. Beta Release, 15 (1), 21-24.California healthcare Foundation. 2005. Consumers in Health Care The Burden of Choice. Available at http//www.chcf.orgConlin, K. K., Schumann, L. (2002). Literacy in the health care system A study on open purport surgery patients. Journal of the American Academy of N urse Practitioners, 14 (1), 38-42.Institute of Medicine. 2004. Health Literacy A Prescription to End Confusion. National Academies Press Washington, DC.Kessels, R.P.C. (2003). 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