Health Literacy The key building block to Member Engagement
Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. 1 Engagement includes the actions a person takes to achieve a health/ behavioral goal based on an informed understanding. Health literacy skills are currently seen as a key factor that impacts peoples ability to engage in self care and chronic-disease management.
Alliance Member Engagement Paradigm Informed Decision- Making Conscious Action Relational Autonomy
Health Literacy: Vastly different from traditional literacy Choosing a healthy lifestyle, knowing how to seek medical care, and taking advantage of preventive measures require that people understand and use health information. Persons with limited health literacy skills make greater use of services designed to treat complications of disease and less use of services designed to prevent complications. 2, 3-5 Research also demonstrate a higher rate of hospitalization and use of emergency services among patients with limited health literacy skills. This higher use is associated with higher healthcare costs. 4
Health Literacy is Critical for Vulnerable Populations In a 2003 study, only 12 percent of U.S. adults had proficient health literacy skills. Over a third of U.S. adults 77 million people would have difficulty with common health tasks, such as following directions on a prescription drug label. Compared to privately insured adults, both publicly insured and uninsured adults had lower health literacy skills. Even people with strong literacy skills can face health literacy challenges. All adults, regardless of their health literacy skills, were more likely to get health information from radio/television, friends/family, and health professionals than from print media.
Health Literacy: What Works Multi Media Videos Illustrated medication instructions Shared Decision Making Aids Ask Me Three Teach back methods
Health Literacy: Current Activities Alliance Projects Modifying Alliance s web content to insure more novel multi media and video formats. Modifying Alliance print content for increasing plain English not just a prescribed reading level. Modifying Alliance print content and patient education materials to include health literacy approaches. Developing illustrated medication booklets designed to assist individuals in understanding when to take medication Developing Shared Decision Making Aids, in partnership with the Mayo Clinic. (still in process)
References 1 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2000. Healthy People 2010. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Originally developed for Ratzan SC, Parker RM. 2000. Introduction. In National Library of Medicine Current Bibliographies in Medicine: Health Literacy. Selden CR, Zorn M, Ratzan SC, Parker RM, Editors. NLM Pub. No. CBM 2000-1. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2 Scott TL, Gazmararian JA, Williams MV, Baker DW. 2002. Health literacy and preventive health care use among Medicare enrollees in a managed care organization. Medical Care. 40(5): 395-404. 3 Baker DW, Parker RM, Williams MV, Clark WS. 1998. Health literacy and the risk of hospital admission. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 13(12): 791-798. 4 Baker DW, Gazmararian JA, Williams MV, Scott T, Parker RM, Green D, Ren J, Peel J. 2002. Functional health literacy and the risk of hospital admission among Medicare managed care enrollees. American Journal of Public Health. 92(8): 1278-1283. 5 Gordon MM, Hampson R, Capell HA, Madhok R. 2002. Illiteracy in rheumatoid arthritis patients as determined by the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy (REALM) score. Rheumatology. 41(7): 750-754. 6 Howard DH, Gazmararian J, Parker RM. 2005. The impact of low health literacy on the medical costs of Medicare managed care enrollees. The American Journal of Medicine, 118, 371-377. 7 Ylitalo, K. R., Meyer, M. R. U., Lanning, B. A., During, C., Laschober, R., & Griggs, J. O. (2018). Simple screening tools to identify limited health literacy in a low-income patient population. Medicine, 97(10)