December 2023
While limited health literacy has a direct and significant impact on the healthcare system, optimal health literacy allows patients to maintain and improve their health outcomes and quality of life. Therefore, it’s important to recognize that we all play an indispensable role in promoting health literacy.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define como la health literacy as a person’s ability to find, understand and use health-related information. It’s estimated that 9 out of 10 adults in the U.S. have difficulty understanding and using personal health-related information, and as a result, there’s an increase in emergency room visits and hospitalizations, as well as higher morbidity and mortality rates.
The American Medical Association (AMA) has stated that, rather than age, economic status or level of education, poor health literacy is a factor directly associated with an individual’s health status.
Likewise, CDC data has established that poor health literacy has repercussions – not only on patient health outcomes, but also on clinical practices and the healthcare system in general.
Given this scenario, it becomes more important to encourage effective communication between patients and their doctors and other healthcare professionals. Patients continually face many challenges in the process of receiving healthcare services, such as filling out medical forms with concepts or terms they’re not familiar with, navigating the healthcare system, understanding clinical terminology, retaining drug dosing instructions, and monitoring controls. This occurs at times when patients are also dealing with their concern for their health status.
The challenges and limitations related to health literacy not only occur with the elderly, but with patients of any age, and may depend on the complexity of the information, the patient’s previous experiences, and the level of stress generated by the health situation they are dealing with at that time.
Given the relevance of this issue to patient health, the CDC has classified literacy using the following categories to join efforts and encourage everyone to take action:
Ability of people to find, understand and use information and services when making health-related decisions and talking action for themselves and others.
The degree to which organizations ensure that people can understand and use the information and services when making health-related decisions and taking action for themselves and others.
The ability to search for, find, understand and evaluate health-related information online, and apply the acquired knowledge to resolve a health-related situation.
Because the doctor is a vital part of a patient’s health care, effective communication techniques can be implemented during visits, so that the patient not only understands his or her health status, but can implement the care recommendations to take health-related action.
Simple Language - Present verbal and written information in a simple way for it to be understood the first time it is heard or read
Non-judgemental Environment - Not only does this allow people to feel comfortable asking questions, but fosters respect and care for the patient as well.
Teach-back - This is a method whereby patients are asked to explain in their own words what they understood. This ensures they comprehend what is being conveyed without feeling judged or embarrassed.
A literacy-based clinical practice not only fosters doctor-patient communication, but is also expected to promote better health outcomes.
All components in the healthcare system are responsible for providing health-related information that is understandable and accessible for all. This includes healthcare professionals and administrative staff supporting patients in finding, understanding, and using health-related information for positive short and long-term outcomes. A clinical practice that promotes effective communication and a non-judgmental environment, along with active listening and engaging patients in making decisions about their health, ensures that patients become more involved in their own care, and more satisfied with the service experience.
At MCS, we reaffirm our commitment to helping you achieve good clinical outcomes when caring for your patients as we implement various initiatives to make it easier for you to adopt health literacy strategies for your practice. Stay tuned for more of our communications to learn what we’re doing to promote health literacy among our members.
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