Health Literacy

klstorytime
Oct 8, 2015
2 min read

October is Health Care Literacy Month

Health care literacy is one of the reasons that I write books on health care topics!!!

This is a topic near and dear to my heart.

Do you know that the average literacy rate in the U.S. is middle school level or below?

Health care literacy is 5th grade level.

This awareness month was founded in 1999 by Helen Osborne.

This year's theme is

Finding the Right Words for Better Health

So what is Health literacy??

It is defined as the degree to which people can obtain, process and/or understand health information needed to make appropriate health decisions and services needed to prevent or treat illness" per the HRSA (US Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Service Administration.)

More than 90 million people in the U.S. are affected by low health literacy.

Typically low literacy is most common in:

Elderly- more than 60% of people 60 years old and up have inadequate literacy skills.

Minorities- a disproportionate number of minorities and immigrants have literacy issues.

Low socioeconomic status

Medically underserved populations

The impact is a huge cost on the American healthcare system. It is estimated that those with low health literacy incur costs 4 times higher than those with better literacy skills.

Ask Me 3

Ask Me 3 is a fact sheet from the non-profit Partnership for Clear Health Communications. The fact sheet is designed to help improve communication between a patient and his/her health care team such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, therapists.

Patients are encouraged to ask 3 questions:

1. What is my main problem?

2. What do I need to do?

3. Why is it important for me to do this?

A great handout to go with the Ask Me 3 is at:

http://www.scriptyourfuture.org/hcp/download/worksheet/Ask%20Me%203%20-%20Tool%20for%20Patient%20Engagement%20.pdf

Additional resources

The Institute of Medical posted a summary report on a Health Literacy workshop at

http://iom.nationalacademies.org/Reports/2015/Health-Literacy-Past-Present-Future.aspx

The CDC (Center of Disease Control and Prevention also has a great website.

http://www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy