Health Literacy

Question 1

3 types of health literacy

Answer 1

1. Basic/ functional HL:
   BASIC SKILLS IN READING + WRITING
2. communicative/ interactive HL:
   MORE ADVANCED CONGITIVE AND LITERACY SKILLS + WITH SOCIAL SKILLS, CAN EXTRACT INFO AND DERIVE MEANING
3. Critical HL:
   MORE ADVANCED COGNITIVE + LITERACY SKILLS, TOGETHER WITH SOCIAL SKILLS CAN CRITICALLY ANALYSE INFO

Question 2

Health literacy in adult Australians 2006

Answer 2

60% had very poor, below minimum level of literacy

Question 3

Low levels of health literacy associated with….

Answer 3

1. Lower education level
2. Unemployment
3. Lower mean household.oncomes
4. Age
5. Not speaking English as first language
6. Less participation in a social group
7. Poorer self assessed health

Question 4

Better health literacy =

Answer 4

Better health outcomes

Question 5

Low health literacy =

Answer 5

1. Bad patient / provider relationship
2. Less access to health care
3. Low self care
4. Low health outcomes / adherence to meds

Question 6

Who should we target to increase health literacy

Answer 6

Elderly
Non English speaking
Persons with low education
Persons with chronic disease

Question 7

Does improving health literacy always improve adherence?

Answer 7

No….
Improving adherence happens if the focus is to enhance patient self efficacy (not just patient knowledge)

Question 8

“Individual measures of health literacy

Answer 8

1. Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) = functional literacy
2. Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) = functional literacy
3. Disease or medicine specific knowledge = health/meds conceptual knowledge

Question 9

Is there a measure to assess spoken comprehension of health info?

Answer 9

No.

Need to directly assess patient understanding