Health Literacy Is A Big Challenge

Low health literacy can lead to big problems including inappropriate and overuse of the healthcare system, difficulty understanding treatment directions and lack of taking medications as prescribed.  In raw numbers, those with low health literacy cost our already-stretched healthcare system four times more than those with proficient health literacy and their collective drag on the U.S. health system has been estimated to be upwards of $236 billion annually.  

Fortunately, those with low health literacy represent a minority of the U.S. population, right?  Wrong. Only 12% of Americans are considered to have proficient health literacy, meaning that nearly nine out of ten adults do not have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. 

These striking statistics affect not only the patient, but those of us interested in containing costs, achieving better health outcomes, or both.  And it leaves us with three critical things to consider.

First, we need to recognize that just as individuals must take personal responsibility for their own health, so too must healthcare organizations take responsibility for helping patients access appropriate information that they can understand and act upon.  In short, the problem of health literacy is not the patient’s alone.

In the Institute of Medicine discussion paper entitled Ten Attributes of Health Literate Health Care Organizations, the authors stress that “health literacy does not depend on the skills of individuals alone” but is “the product of individuals’ capacities and the health literacy-related demands and complexities of the health care system.” This begins with leadership that “makes health literacy integral to its mission, structure, and operations.”  So in addition to asking whether your patients are health literate, you should also be asking “is my organization health literate and, if not, what can I do to help in this endeavor?”

Secondly, it is time to acknowledge that print material alone, no matter how simply it is written, is not enough to solve the health literacy crisis.  Adding audiovisual and social media content that is culturally and linguistically appropriate is essential if we truly want to avoid miscommunication that can negatively affect patient care and outcomes.  While rapidly changing demographics can pose challenges for health care organizations, advances in technology can present opportunities too. 

Social and mobile technologies can reach diverse populations in ways never before possible. These technologies can also engage patients in the design, implementation, and evaluation of information and services that allow organizations to communicate more effectively and overcome many of the barriers common with low health literacy.  It is time that we took advantage of these great opportunities before us.

Lastly, and most importantly, it is never too soon to begin talking about health literacy.  We are in the midst of a childhood obesity epidemic that has social, financial, and health care implications for individuals, families, health care organizations, and governments both in our own country and around the world.  If Elmo can teach pre-school children about financial literacy, perhaps we could all learn a thing or two from Sesame Street.  While kids aren’t balancing checkbooks or managing household budgets now, some day they will be. 

Health literacy, like financial literacy, is a complex subject, but some basic concepts are easy enough for a child to understand: eating properly and getting enough exercise can help you live a longer and healthier life.  Instead of being reactive and addressing health literacy issues only when problems arise, we should be proactive in fostering life-long learning. 

If patient care matters to you, then so should health literacy.

Tim Jones is the chief executive officer of Health Nuts Media, a multimedia health education producer in Los Angeles.