Martin W. Sanders 11/28/16
Health
What does it mean to be health literate?
Coach Pate
“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” (health.gov, 2016). Many factors affect an individual’s health literacy. The ability of the person to understand and communicate with doctors and professionals, the culture in which he/she lives, the access to public health systems, and physical conditions are part of health literacy. It depends also on the willingness to share personal information with caregivers, to have good self care and disease management, and the ability to fill out difficult forms and find good health care. To be health literate, the person must be able to communicate with doctors and professionals. The person must be able to tell the doctor what is needed and what hurts or causing pain. The person must be able to tell what is most important in his lifestyle and what condition is interrupting this lifestyle. The person needs to be able to understand what the
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A person who is poor may use the money he has in the wrong way. One example of this is if the person gets money and spends it on unwise choices such as purchasing cigarettes instead of fruits or vegetables. A person with a good income may have better health literacy over the poor person. Some cultures teach different aspects of doctors and medical needs. Some groups of people won’t let their children get shots even if they are able to get them. Some people do not believe in new cures and want to use old remedies. The person may not tell the doctor his background or religious beliefs. The culture of an educated person lets him talk to the doctor easily, but an uneducated person with limited health literacy skills might be ashamed of his vocabulary or reading ability and not ask
According to Penner et al. (2013), there are various causes of healthcare disparities, such as socioeconomic status; this results to poor healthcare services for people with low socioeconomic status, as people with low pay find it difficult to leave their work to seek healthcare help, or to afford healthcare insurance (p.4). The second cause is language proficiency. The language barriers faced by the immigrant plays a role in the healthcare disparities among the racial or ethnic minority patients. Another cause is health literacy. The levels of the health literacy among the foreign born individuals can be influenced by their higher level of distrust of the healthcare providers and healthcare system than they have towards Caucasian people. This, in turn, leads them to seek healthcare information less often than their Caucasian counterparts, thus hindering the provision of quality services, as well as limiting the foreign patients’ ability to manage their health conditions effectively. The foreigners’ failure to easily accept the information provided to them by healthcare providers puts them at risk. Disentangling the role of health literacy in racial healthcare disparities from the effects of racial attitudes and beliefs is often hard (Penner et al,
pp. 197-205 Singleton, K., & Krause, E. (2009). Understanding cultural and linguistic barriers to health literacy. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 14(3). United Nations.
...e are all affected by low income. As MacRae et al. (2012, p. 42) mentioned, Indigenous people who reported no usual daily intake of fruit or vegetables were more likely to be the lowest quintile of income. And another example from Bourke et al. (2012, p.501) indicates that lower income of the Aboriginal residents of Ruralsville, as well as low social status and socially marginalised, all leads to poorer health status. People with low income are more likely having trouble to get the treatment they need. Some of them cannot afford the medication for a specific disease. A study by Kemp et al. (2013, p.21) shows that, prescription medicines for chronic disease pose a substantial financial burden to people who had low incomes. If a patient cannot get the medication or the surgery, his/her health status will affect by this situation, and eventually leads to bad outcome.
“Malnutrition, neonatal diseases, diarrhoea and pneumonia are the major causes of death. Poor rural states are particularly affected by a dearth of health resources.”(doc V) Those who live in rural areas are unable to receive proper health care because of the lack of health resources. This is a sign of discrimination because the rural states are particularly affected, compared to wealthy states are less affected by the illnesses which torment the poor, yet they are still the ones that receive the most help. The government is not building enough health resources and those that are built are not put in the poor rural areas. The poor are denied health care and hospitals simply because they are poor. And without hospitals to cure the sick and impoverished, they fall deeper into poverty. “Life in an Indian slum was never easy, but for Hiraman Ram, a migrant construction worker, it has recently become a lot harder. 5 months ago, the father-of-three was hospitalised with an intestinal infection, and had to cover the expensive treatment from his own pocket. He has since been unable to work, and the family has been pushed deeper into poverty. "We now survive on borrowed money and other people's goodwill",” Hiraman Ram’s sickness caused his family to go further into poverty. The family had to spend all of their money on treatment and all of their time on taking care of the father. They
Conaty-Buck, S. (2009). Unblocking barriers: Clearing the channel to improve communication between practitioners and patients with low health literacy. (Order No. 3364864, University of Virginia). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 121. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.uproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/docview/305011452?accountid=14694. (305011452).
However, health literacy is more than just read and write; it is the ability to understand and able to use health information to make choices about their health (Benyon, 2014). Low health literacy can have detrimental effect on the health of the client because it may cause misunderstand of the medical label or health information. According to McMurray & Clendon (2015), health literacy divided into three different levels which are functional, interactive/communicative and critical health literacy. As for functional levels, it is the most general and fundamental level for the general public because individuals need to receive and understand the information of health such as risk of health decision, consent forms, health instruction or medicine labels. (McMurray & Clendo , 2015) Turning to the next level, interactive/communicative health literacy, mainly involved personal skills to spread health knowledge to the community, and also , people are able to influence social norm and help others individuals to develop their personal health capacity. Because of this, understanding of how organization work and resounding communication skill which can help to support others and knowing how to get different health services other individuals need (McMurray & Clendo , 2015). The third level is critical health literacy, mainly divided to
Health literacy is a term not widely understood by the general population. It is defined as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information needed to make appropriate health decisions and services needed to prevent or treat illness,” (About health literacy, 2014). A person’s level of health literacy is based on their age, education level, socioeconomic standing, and cultural background. Patients with low health literacy have a more difficult time navigating the health care system. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this group of patients may find it harder to find medical services and health care providers, fill out health forms, provide their complete medical history with their providers, seek preventative care, understand the health risks associated with some behaviors, taking care of chronic health conditions, and understanding how to take prescribed medications (About health literacy, 2014). It is to a certain extent the patient’s responsibility to increase their own health literacy knowledge. But to what extent can they learn on their own? Those working in the health field have been trained to navigate the health system and understand the medical terms. They have the knowledge and capability to pass on that understanding to their patients. Health care professionals have a shared responsibility to help improve patients’ health literacy.
Sociology of Health and Illness The sociological approaches focus on identifying the two sociological theories. We critically analysed the biomedical model and doctor-patient relationship. We also evaluated how the medical professionals exercise social control and the medical professional’s contribution to ill health. The difference between society and health is studied by sociologists in relation to health and illness.
"Many Asian Americans who are not proficient in English experience barriers in help-seeking, including making an appointment, locking a health facility, communicating with health professionals, and acquiring knowledge on illness " (Kim, & Keefe, 2010). Even under the interpreters, the majority of non-English or limited English speaker Asian Americans are shy to share their personal information to third person and sometimes they feel shame to utilize the translator so they try to refrain asking questions. Moreover, language ability also affects the health literacy. " Health literacy is the ability to acquire and understand information about medical and health issues and to make appropriate decisions based on that information" (Boslaugh, 2013). Hence, language issue make Asian Americans are afraid to particulate, maintain and monitor their health due to invalid health literacy.
It is fairly difficult to define health as there are no agreements between scholars. This is why many sociologists focus their research on the different issues and problems of ill health.
Those who are at the bottom 20 percent don’t have access to things like health care and proper education. Health care is a major issue in most cities in America. While watching the movie “Poor America” there was a scene when the people making the movie decided to film outside a center where doctors and dentists would be performing free services. The line was extremely long and people would be camped outside just so they could see a doctor. Many people who were there had serious injuries and sicknesses and hadn’t seen a doctor or a dentist in a very long time. One gentleman in particular was so sick that the doctors strongly suggested he go to the emergency room, that his sickens could be fatal. However at the end the gentlemen refused to go to the emergency because the medical bill would be extremely
The goal of improving health literacy is to empower individuals and community, to ensure that they feel comfortable and confident to make effective decisions by obtaining and understanding the relevant information. Strategies that applied in addressing health literacy should reflect respect, cultural safety, community or individuals’ needs and literacy level. Health professionals should facilitate and build capacity in promoting health literacy to allow the target groups have more control over their health and
According to a poll taken on debate.org, 48% of the people who voted believed hunting must not be banned and 52% believed it must be banned. The topic of hunting and what is ethical and what is unethical is often discussed and debated by hunters and anti-hunting organizations. Most anti-hunters believe hunters kill for fun, for bragging rights, and to bring home large antlers. Fred Bear, legendary bowhunter and founder of bear archery, said, “A hunt based only on the trophies taken falls far short of what the ultimate goal should be.” The ultimate goal is to be one with nature and experience the beauties of this earth (Pickhartz).
There has been a great deal of attention given by individuals, the media and by the government to Health Education. There is no doubt that a population which is “health literate” is significant for the sake of the “public health as a whole and consequently for public finances”(Tappe 2013) (Younghee 2013) Many countries including the U.S. have realized just how vitally this issues has become. (Younghee 2013) Sadly however, the ability understand basic health information, with or without health education, as well as access and process the services is only possessed by “50%”of the American public, resulting in the escalation or health care costs as well as poor decision making regarding health care. (Mancuso 2011) Yet the fact is that over the years at local, state, and institutional levels, health educators have been very successfully advocating to influence smoking regulations, child safety seat policies, nutrition policies, and many other health policies and regulations still a stunning “98.0%” of them report “barriers to policy activity”. (Bliss 2013)
Health is a vital component in our everyday life. If it is compromised, everything else goes down with it. Health affects an individual drastically; therefore, it is imperative that we take good care of our bodies in order to maintain normal body functions that can help us go through our normal day-to-day lives without fail. There are many factors that can affect health--one of them is Education. Health education feeds emotions that will motivate us to do a better job at being caretakers of ourselves. It can therefore, be said that health education can encourage people to act on their own personal health.