Introduction
Health literacy skills require functionality to understand risk, sort out conflicting information, and make healthy decisions. The problem has significant financial and medical and social consequences for society as a whole. Fundamental measures are required so that patients can understand complex healthcare systems. In this regard, the task of developing tools for using the information to achieve and maintain the right level of personal health becomes urgent. The purpose of this paper is to describe measures, quality improvements, and better outcomes of health literacy.
Basis
Global trends in medical literacy seek to bridge cultural differences to help narrow the gap in communication. Researchers note that there are some obstacles to the effective treatment of Muslim women. Religious features must be clearly understood in order to provide culturally competent assistance, namely, beliefs and preferences regarding the health of Muslim women and their families (Tackett et al., 2018).
The method of mass communication among the target audience involves stakeholders in order to present the social and environmental factors that affect their health independently. Competence in health matters shapes people’s behavior and their choices, and finally, health and well-being. Low medical awareness leads to non-compliance with healthy lifestyles, risky behaviors, more hospital admissions, and higher healthcare costs.
Creating conditions for using qualified medical care services, finding the necessary information are effective methods of solving the health literacy problem. According to Crook, Stephens, Pastorek, Mackert, and Donovan (2016), the Internet, mobile phones, and other communication methods allow instantly transmitting and receiving information. Limited medical literacy is believed to contribute to misunderstandings regarding health, as well as limited access to medical care. The elimination of differences in literacy between in Muslim women and health care providers implies a focus on communication methods. Medical workers should focus on cultural peculiarities and lack of language literacy to ensure relevant services. For example, nurses must be competent in religious concepts of Muslims.
Conclusion
The effects of cultural differences contribute to the deterioration of patients’ health status, value conflicts, and various concepts of health and disease. According to Kratka et al. (2018), medical information is often more complicated to understand than other types of documents. At our institution, providing patients with information in a simplified language is one of the advanced approaches to reduce health literacy barriers especially with non-native speakers. It is also necessary to develop a concept for the education of medical workers, which simultaneously takes into account limited medical literacy and cultural differences in order to provide patient-oriented care.
References
Crook, B., Stephens, K. K., Pastorek, A. E., Mackert, M., & Donovan, E. E. (2016). Sharing health information and influencing behavioral intentions: The role of health literacy, information overload, and the Internet in the diffusion of healthy heart information. Health Communication, 31(1), 60-71.
Kratka, A., Wong, C. A., Herrmann, R., Hong, K., Karediya, A., Yang, I., & Ubel, P. A. (2018). Finding health care prices online—how difficult is it to be an informed health-care consumer? JAMA Internal Medicine, 178(3), 423-424.
Tackett, S., Young, J. H., Putman, S., Wiener, C., Deruggiero, K., & Bayram, J. D. (2018). Barriers to healthcare among Muslim women: A narrative review of the literature. In Women’s Studies International Forum (Vol. 69, pp. 190-194). Pergamon.