Sheida White, Jing Chen and Ruth Atchison, 2008. Relationship of Preventing Health Practices and Health Literacy: A National Study. American Journal of Health Behavior 2008;32(3): 227-242.
This particular study has been stated as one of the first exclusive studies to assess health literacy levels among the American population. Termed as National Assessment of Adult Literacy or NAAL, the survey aims to identify correlations between the educational levels with “self related preventive health practices.” This and other kinds of similar researches are aimed at understanding the problems that general non-medical adult populations can face regarding medical paraphernalia and whether they are able to decipher some of
the basic medical concepts and information. This information is not only limited to hospital routines but includes everyday use of a substance which can have health warnings, labels, brochures, and related educational material related to health and legal terminologies that pertain to medical issues. The reasons are many for this endeavor, for medical personnel state that there is a definite role of medical terminology understanding with the overall compliance, response rates, and outcomes of the patients. This lack of basic knowledge can also help prevent many basic health problems that can be easily managed without them increasing to more complicated stages.
MacLaughlin, Raehl, Treadway, Sterling, Zoller, and Bond, 2005. Assessing Medication Adherence in the Elderly- Which Tools to Use in Clinical Practice? Drugs Aging 2005;22(3): 231-255.
Patients display a lack of adherence to medication regimes as high as 50%. This can take place in almost any age group. The outcomes estimated are 10% of hospital and 23% of nursing home admissions. For the elderly, the use of more medications and the presence of multiple diseases necessitates that strict medication adherence be followed. There are very few options to assess this, for most of the researches and studies are based on subjective assessments. Medical adherence, in particular, is any behavioral modification as well as strict use of medical drugs and other therapeutic measures that are advised by the physician. While this term is largely restricted to pharmacological therapy adherence, the concurrent use of other substances such as self medications, herbal remedies, etc., may affect and influence the results of the therapeutic regime. This term is now distinctive from medical compliance.
Robert L Ludke, Phillip J. Obermiller, C Jeff Jacobson Jr., Thomas Shaw, and Victoria E. Wells, 2005. “Sometimes It’s Hard to Figure”: The Functional Health Literacy of the Appalachians in a Metropolitan Area. Journal of Appalachian Studies Vol. 12 No. 1, pp 7- 20.
The importance of health literacy cannot be overemphasized. This lack of literacy directly translates into poor medical compliance and a lack of understanding about the procedures and schedules related to visits. Other complications include higher hospitalization rates, worsening health, increased violence, and premature deaths, and higher costs, respectively. Disadvantaged populations stand to suffer the most from such situations. The Appalachians fall under this category as they display the nation’s highest rates of poverty and economic problems. A study carried out on this particular population was centered in areas of Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, respectively, where larger concentrations of Appalachians reside. Forty sites were selected for this screening. Patients represented people coming for medical consult aged 18 years or above. Of the total that came, 746 were selected for the interview and assessment. The interview also directly questioned whether the person was an Appalachian or not. Questions were related to demographic characteristics, health status, functional health literacy, and coping skills. The functional health literacy was measured with the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults.
Ed Rabinowitz, 2008. Design Communication with Health Literacy in Mind. Managed Health Care Executive, pp 24.
Rabinowitz highlights the effect of health literacy on the US economy to be $238 billion annually. He states that the lack of health literacy among the US population is as high as 36%. The role of tool Affinity has been advocated as a very important potential contributory in reducing the rates of health illiteracy. This program essentially rephrased many of the health informative questionnaires and documents into simple language. These methods help in creating better communication between the providers and the patients, who may not have the necessary understanding of various health concepts.
Melinda Beeuwkes Buntin, Cheryl Damberg, Amelia Haviland, Kanika Kapur, Nicole Lurie, Roland McDevitt, and M. Susan Marquis, 2006. Consumer-Directed Health Care: Early Evidence About Effects On Cost And Quality. Health Affairs, 25, no. 6: w516-w530
Consumer Directed Health Care or CDHC is the future method to reduce costs of health care and to reduce the number of complications that come into emergencies each year. This policy aims at finding ways to educate people to take charge of their own health and be more aware of the various medical-related issues rather than only rely on physicians. There are now many ways that CDHC is considered. For some, it may mean that it is a legal provision of funds or benefits. To health care professionals, it is a manner of reaching out to people and how they can be more aware and in charge of their own health. These policies are, however, not without faults. There are still many areas that need to be resolved in order to achieve better outcomes. For example, the author considers that low deductible insurance is more attractive to sicker people and consumer-directed plans are more attractive to healthy people. These can affect the overall costs of the various plans and consequently the effect on an average user of the facility. The overall conclusions are to address the issues of possible consumerism associated with CDHC in order to make it a more effective tool.
Paul P. Lee, 1999. Why Literacy Matters Links Between Reading Ability and Health. Archives of Ophthalmology 1999;117:100-103
The resounding 47% of Americans in 1993 showed poor reading and comprehension skills. This translates into poor comprehension in all areas of life, including medicine. In the field of ophthalmology, this state can mean a very high incidence of poor deciphering of information, leading to problems in communication and understanding. Literacy has been defined on various levels, either on the ability to read or the grade level to which education has been attained. This may not, however, indicate functional comprehension, which is the ability to understand and comprehend the material. Various tests such as Wide Range Achievement Tests are very good indicators of the reading ability of the people. In the field of medicine, a very helpful tool in this regard is the Rapid Estimate of the Adult Literacy in Medicine test. Two others mentioned include the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults and the Medical Terminology Achievement Reading Test. Again the research points to the negative effects of illiteracy in medical terms, which lead to complications in a health-related matter of the patients.
Micheal J Maniaci, Micheal G. Heckman and Nancy L. Dawson, 2008. Functional Health Literacy and Understanding of Medications at Discharge. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Vol. 83, no. 5, pp 554-558.
Health literacy is the ability to discern and understand the various health-related information a regular person comes across with. In 2004, health illiteracy had reached nearly 50% in the United States, which is a very alarming sign. Patients who exhibit poor health-related information are very likely to suffer from complications and have more frequent visits. Therefore, the health care personnel must be made aware and be guided in various medical terms in order to make communication more effective. Health illiteracy can affect all areas of a patient’s health, including dosage regime to reappointments. The medical community holds a very important responsibility to make the public more health aware. Patient surveys have shown that a large majority of patients are unlikely to name their medications and, therefore, identify their effects or their requirements. The functional health literacy was overall poor. The need to address this situation is very important for the future health care industry.
Dan Morrow, Dan Clark, Wanzhu Tu, Jingwei Wu, Micheal Weiner, Douglas Steinley, and Micheal D Murray, 2006. Correlates of Health Literacy in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure. The Gerontologist 46; 669-676.
Elderly patients are more likely to have health illiteracy problems, which may lead to poor health and consequences. In order to understand why such illiteracy occurs, proper research is needed. The research was carried out on a community sample of middle-aged and older adults. The selected participants were 314, who comprised 67% of the females, and of these, 48% were African American. These patients were diagnosed with chronic heart failure and were recruited for pharmacist-based intervention. The methods included in the study were demographic, health and education, cognitive and sensory measures, and STOFHLA. Results showed that those who scored low scores on STOFHLA were of older age groups. It was found that cognitive ability, as well as literacy rate, have an important implication on the health literacy levels among the elderly.
Micheal S Wolf, Karen A Flitzer, Eowyn F. Powell, Kathryn R McCaffrey, Simon Pickard, June M. McKoy, Julia Lindenberg, Glen T Schumock, Kenneth R. Carson, Rosario Ferreira, Nancy C. Dolan and Charles L Bennet, 2005. Costs and Effectiveness of a Health Care Provider-Directed Intervention to Promote Colorectal Cancer Screening Among Veterans. J Clin Oncol 23:8877-8883.
Colorectal screening is now an essential part for all people above the age of fifty, as recommended by physicians. However, reported colorectal screening is much lower than other screening measures such as cervical cancer screening, etc. This issue is particularly seen in Veteran Affairs health care system. The study aimed at identifying the cost-effectiveness of the colorectal screening promotion intervention. The providers attended educational workshops on colorectal cancer screening and received confidential feedback on individual and group-specific colorectal cancer screening rates. These rates, colorectal screening for intervention vs. control arms was found to be 41 vs. 32 percent, respectively. The study showed that intervention based on reports to physicians was helpful in improving colorectal cancer screening rates.
Hirono Ishikawa, Takeaki Takeuchi, and Eiji Yano, 2008. Measuring Functional, Communicative and Critical Health Literacy among Diabetic Patients. Diabetes Care 31: 874-879, 2008.
Health literacy is an important adjuvant to the success of health-related issues of patients from recurring. The study was aimed to examine the various scales and their effectiveness in the assessment of health literacy. Three health literacy scales were evaluated, the patients selected included 138 outpatients who had diabetes type II. The questions asked were related to sociodemographic, clinical characteristics, knowledge of diabetes, information-seeking behavior and self-efficacy, etc. The results were able to prove the reliability and validity for diabetic patients.