HEALTH LITERACY

Health Literacy



Health Literacy

Introduction

Literacy is defined most simply as the ability to read and write. We can think of literacy as the ability to understand and communicate information. In this context, it is useful to think of health literacy as the ability to understand and communicate health information. The Institute of Medicine's recent report defines health literacy as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions”.

According to American Medical Association, welfare of health literacy is "a more powerful predictor of human healthcare than age, income, paid employment grade, teaching class and race." In health literacy: the prescription End Confusion, Institute of Medicine of accounts that ninety million people in United States, nearly half of community adversity understand and use information healthcare.

  

Discussion

Relationship between literacy and healthcare is complicated. Literacy affects healthcare information, being rank, and access to welfare services. Health rank used by some of related socio-economic factors. Literacy affects income class, occupation, education, housing, and access to health care. Poor and illiterate people more likely to work under the risky situation or be disclosed to environmental toxins.           Results 1992 Adult Literacy Survey (National Library of Medicine, 2010, online) shows that mature individuals with limited literacy were more likely than those with high school literacy to be poor and have welfare of situations that restrict their activities. There are both direct and digressive sentence reductions being literacy. Direct effects include non-compliance or medication errors. Digressive effects is difficult to estimate, but may include protection, accessibility to welfare assistance, and welfare of poor choices of behavior. "Groups with largest occurrence of chronic infection, and all require care for healthcare was least knowledge to read and understand data necessary for function of patients", according to the report on Council on Scientific Affairs, Ad Hoc Committee on Health Literacy for Council on Scientific Affairs, American Medical Association.

The results of studies on effect of literacy             According to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Report, Literacy and Health (January 2004), reducing welfare literacy is associated with higher levels of hospitalization and higher use of expensive services crisis. This evidence-based publications to review best features of many studies, which supply the comprehensive study of relationship between reduced healthcare of literacy and poor health. Below are just the few of contributions from research on literacy and welfare outcomes.

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