Health Literacy

Stan and Clarence chat with Dr. Genelle Lamont about health literacy.

Dr. Lamont, currently serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Duluth Campus. Dr. Lamont's research interests focus on the intersection between chronic disease, social determinants of health, and Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias in indigenous populations. She also focuses on health equity, health literacy, cultural humility, and establishing meaningful and accessible health data on American Indians/Alaska Natives using community-based participatory research and building public health surveillance capacity to address native health.

Listen along as Dr. Lamont shares her expansive knowledge about the importance of health literacy.

Join the conversation at healthchatterpodcast.com

Brought to you in support of Hue-MAN, who is Creating Healthy Communities through Innovative Partnerships. More about their work can be found at http://huemanpartnership.org/

Episode Research

NIH most recent definition: Personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.
Health literacy impacts on health:

Low health literacy is associated with

more hospitalizations
greater use of emergency care
decreased use of preventive services
poorer ability to interpret labels and health messages
poorer health status
higher mortality
higher health care costs
obesity, dietary choices, and exercise

Health literacy is an important factor in disease prevention and control

Health Literacy Population Statistics:

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy Survey found that 36% of U.S. adults had basic or below-basic health literacy
Only 12% of Americans are considered proficient in their health literacy skills.
Demographics of health literacy in the U.S

In the U.S., non-whites are more likely to have limited health literacy than whites.
Low socioeconomic status is the most important determinant of health literacy, greatest associated with these factors:

Low educational attainment
Income
Education

Rates of limited health literacy are also higher among elderly persons and among non-native English speakers
Ex: Women with low health literacy are associated with a lower probability of mammography

Even people with high literacy skills may have low health literacy skills in certain situations. For example, someone who is stressed and sick when they’re accessing health information may have trouble remembering, understanding, and using that information.

Health Equity and Health Literacy:

Health literacy is associated with other determinants of health that are key to the success of disease prevention and control

Education
Income
Access to healthcare

Improving the level of health literacy in the population or making health services more accessible to people with low health literacy may offer the means to achieve greater equity in disease outcomes
Interventions that improve health literacy empower individuals and communities to take action on social and economic determinants of health at both the individual and community level → health literacy is a modifiable factor by which health disparities can be reduced

Improving health literacy:

Communicating clearly with people helps them find and understand health information. And when people understand health information, they can make well-informed health decisions.
Ensure that people in the community can easily access the health information they need
Create and provide plain language health materials in different languages
Provide trainings to teach health professionals and others who provide health information about health literacy best practices
Create clearinghouses of information about health literacy for health professionals
Review health materials (like insurance forms and medication instructions) with community members to help make sure they understand the information — and what actions they need to take

Sources

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7889072/

https://www.nnlm.gov/guides/intro-health-literacy

https://www.nih.gov/institutes-nih/nih-office-director/office-communications-public-liaison/clear-communication/health-literacy