What happens when you visit a doctor’s office for the first time? Likely the first thing you get is a clipboard with a form that needs to be filled out.
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Knowing what to do with that form and how to fill it out is just one area where health literacy comes into play. A common definition of health literacy is "the degree to which people have the ability to obtain and understand information about their health and health services, so they may make good decisions about their health." But health literacy also refers to the abilities of doctors, nurses, health insurance companies, and other professionals to communicate effectively with their patients and clients.
"With all the talk this election year of our broken health care system, the one topic that’s consistently overlooked is health literacy," said Will Ross, M.D. and member of the Institute of Medicine Round Table on Health Literacy. Ross is also an Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Diversity at the Washington University School of Medicine. "When you consider the costs of low health literacy on human lives and the economic toll it takes there aren’t many more pressing issues faced by the health care industry."
Health literacy affects everyone, regardless of age, gender, race, occupation, or educational background.
In 2003, a study by the U.S. Department of Education National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) showed that 36% of adults in the United States had basic or below basic health literacy levels. This means that one-third of adults had trouble with dealing with Medicare issues, understanding serving sizes on food packaging, or reading a medicine label. In Northwest Missouri, this would translate to slightly more than 126,000 people struggling with health information, or enough to fill Arrowhead Stadium 1 ½ times.
"When it comes to people understanding the information we give them we have no more problems in the health field than any other field," said Jo Blackney, RN, and administrator of the Atchison County Health Department. "We’re very small here, it’s just myself, one LPN (licensed practical nurse) and a clerk so we can’t do a lot of outreach and classes. We barely have enough staff to keep the doors open and deal with what we’ve got."
For the 93 million adults in the United States that are estimated as having low health literacy skills, there are consequences. According to the Health Literacy Institute, those with limited health literacy:
Are less able to manage chronic diseases such as diabetes;
Are less likely to get physical exams and tests that find diseases before they can do harm;
Get sick more often;
Have longer hospital stays, which costs more money.
Among those at the highest risk for low health literacy are adults 65 and older. Other at risk populations are minorities, immigrants, low income, and those with chronic mental and/or physical health conditions.
While low health literacy is clearly a problem both in Northwest Missouri and nationwide, there are steps that can be taken both personally and within the healthcare industry to help the situation.
The simplest answer is the use of clear communication and plain language when it comes to health care. This means using words and ideas that make it easier for people to understand. A 2007 study showed that doctors use medical terms that their patients do not understand in eight out of every 10 office visits. Other studies have shown that most healthcare materials are written at a 10th grade level, while 20% of the population reads at a fifth grade level or below. Just by making materials easier to read and understand for this segment of the population would greatly improve health literacy in this country.
Health Literacy Missouri is made up of three groups University of Missouri, St. Louis collaborative and Missouri State University as funded by Missouri Foundation for Health. The mission of the HLM is to develop a framework to improve health literacy in the state and to participate in a coordinating council to develop statewide strategies.
Health Literacy Missouri serves the counties of Daviess, Ray, Carroll, Platte, Clinton, Caldwell, Livingston, Grundy Mercer, Harrison, Dekalb, Gentry, Worth, Nodaway, Atchison, Holt, Andrew and Buchanan.