“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.” (Healthy People, 2010) It includes knowing how to control with your own health and to benefit your own health through making informed health decisions, seeking appropriate treatments. Anyone can be health literate. Anyone at home, at school, work, or even the society as a whole. Health literacy can impact our health overall and all aspects of life. Even if you’re intelligent and educated people in the stress of medical situation when you’re ill, you can be health literate too.
The aim is to motivate them with whatever interests they may have in improving their health and develop in them a sense of responsibility for health conditions for themselves at all levels i.e. as individuals, as members of families, and as communities. It is important, in health education, to include an appraisal of what is known by a population about a disease or a health event, to make assessments of habits and attitudes of the people as they relate to spread and frequency of the disease or health event, and to do the presentation of specific means to remedy observed
The Institute of Medicine (2004) 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” (para. 2). This implies that individual skills, including reading, speaking and math skills, come into play anytime people make health decisions (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). The Institute of Medicine (2004) indicates that health literacy is also a health systems problem, because health information is often complex to understand and health systems difficult to navigate. This paper describes the individual and system causes of low health literacy.
Health Literacy and Health Literacy Tools in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes: A Mixed Method Study Introduction Health literacy is a vital component in effective health communication between pharmacists and patients (1). However, there is high prevalence of poor health literacy across different populations (2). Health literacy is defined by the Institution of Medicine (IOM) 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” (3). This definition was modified by Berkman et al. (2010) to “the degree to which individuals can obtain, process, understand, and communicate about health-related information needed
Health literacy has been a major focus in the country for numerous years and is fundamental to health care reform. This is due to the fact that low health literacy is associated with poor health outcomes, higher healthcare costs and reduced quality of care. Health literacy refers to “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions” (Baker, 2006). According to the National Adult Literacy Survey, nearly 9 out of 10 adults have difficulty using the everyday health information that is routinely made available by physicians and other healthcare providers, and handed out in hospitals, health clinics, community programs, or accessed
Healthcare is a key component in national development which all governments have to set as a high priority. As the saying goes, a healthy nation is a wealthy nation. Without quality healthcare the working force will be unproductive hence a dwindling economy. Ensuring quality healthcare is a never ending process. Policy makers, bureaucrats and health personnel have to understand their environment, adopt to change, implement plans and many more.
Understanding health literacy and what it means is very important, especially if a person is a nurse or works in the healthcare system. According to Healthy People (2010), Health literacy means the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Patients that are at the biggest risk for low health literacy in our communities are patients the are part of our low-income communities, elderly, minorities and society members that have lower education levels. Unfortunately, the impact of low literacy on health promotion and health education is significant. Patients that have low health literacy are at risk for frequent hospitalization
Magazines 3. Books IMPORTANCE OF NEWSPAPER IN TODAYS MEDIA: Media has always played a very huge role in our society. Newspaper is also a very important source of media today. When there was no newspaper in this world people used to read books in order to get to know about various things but now newspaper has given ease to many people in many fields. Newspaper is such a media that consist of a wide audience.
They should be able to solve their problems skilfully and make absolute decisions that should be healthy for them as well as for others. Life skill is a strong foundation for a healthy and successful development of a child. Life skills not only develop an individual healthy but it also contributes to develop inner resources to withstand the pressures of the daily life challenges and risks. According to the World Health Organization (WHO 2003, document – 9), skill based health education focuses on developing the knowledge, attitudes, values, and life skills that young people need to make and act on the most appropriate and positive health – related decisions. Individuals who possess these skills are likely to adopt and sustain a healthy lifestyle during their school years and throughout the rest of their lives.
PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH EDUCATION This concept was taken from module 11”information, education, and communication”, sub topic 2”principles and methods of community health education”. Health education can be defined as a process that informs, motivates and helps people to adopt and maintain healthy practices and lifestyles, advocates environmental changes as needed to facilitate this goal and conducts professional trainings and research to the same end. The Joint Committee on Health Education and Promotion Terminology of 2001 defined Health Education as "any combination of planned learning experiences based on sound theories that provide individuals, groups, and communities the opportunity to acquire information and the skills needed to make quality