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Health literacy: One pillar of patient education

Patient Safety Monitor, June 1, 2009

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Patient Safety Monitor.

: Synopsis: Editor’s note: The following excerpt is from the new HCPro book Effectively Managing Patient Education: Going Beyond Joint Commission Requirements, by Susan Kanack, BSN, RN. Visit www.hcmarketplace.com to find out more about this book and other strategies to aid your patient education process.
Health literacy has many formal definitions, but a widely accepted definition is that health literacy is the ability to read, understand, and act on health information. Low health literacy is a growing concern in healthcare and is estimated to affect up to 90 million people in the United States.1 This means one in three patients who are seen or admitted into the hospital are likely to have low health literacy, and it’s highly likely that they will be unable to understand most of the medical information and patient education presented to them.
Health information is essential to a patient’s well-being and is directly linked to patient outcomes. In fact, literacy skills are a stronger predictor of health than age, income, employment status, education level, or race/ethnicity.2 Low health literacy crosses all boundaries and does not discriminate.
The disparities for population groups that are already considered vulnerable, such as racial/ethnic minorities and the elderly, are intensified when low health literacy comes into play. Studies show that low health literacy further widens the gap in these populations.

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Patient Safety Monitor.

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