12- Health Literacy

Personal health literacy

the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others

Organizational health literacy

the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others

health literacy

____________ occurs when health information and services created for patients and the public match with their capacity to find, understand, and use them

Social-Ecological Model

Examines health literacy

Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Organizational, Community level, Policy

What kind of factors impact health literacy?

Intrapersonal

A person’s knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and self-efficacy

Interpersonal

Who an individual surrounds themselves with (social identity, support networks, social roles can determine what you think about health issues, impacting our actions)

Organizational health literacy

The study and evaluation of what organizations do to make it easier (or more difficult) for people to understand heatlth information, navigate the health care system, engage in the healthcare process, and manage health

Community level

Where people look for information (how easy/difficult, values/beliefs of a community)

Policy

out of the factors that impact health literacy, ______ is the most effective broadly

Health literacy in the healthcare context

-accessing health information

-navigating the healthcare system

-engaging in self-care and disease management

Health literacy universal precautions

A universal precautions approach means treating all people as if they are at risk of not understanding health information

health literacy universal precautions

reasons to use _______________

-Limited health literacy is common and hard to recognize

-Concerns about asking questions

-Shame around not understanding

-It's hard to think clearly when sick, anxious, or afraid

Plain language

Communication your audience can understand the first time they read it

Plain language strategies

1) organize content (put the most important message first)

2) choose words and numbers carefully

3) keeping things short

4) using pronouns (instead of "anyone, their", use "your, you")

5) make information easy to find and understand (white space, bullets)

false

Limited health literacy is uncommon but heard to recognize, T/F?

true

Plain language reduces miscommunication, T/F?

Jargon

Latin and other specialized vocab that insiders use among themselves; language specifics to profession or group

Types of jargon

-Unnecessarily complex, technical, or lesser-known language

-Latin, Greek, or other foreign words or abbreviations

-Words that have different meanings depending on context

jargon

When _________ is common, patients, clients, caregivers, and the public won't be able to:

-Follow verbal instructions
-listen to and understand recommendations
-explain what they heard in their own words
-read print education materials
-share accurate info

translation, interpretation

Jargon interferes with ________ & ____________

-Certified translators and interpreters must adhere to the

original language

-When professionals use jargon, translators and interpreters must use jargon too

-Jargon creates the same comprehension problems across

languages

Plain language numbers

• Whole numbers are best

• Avoid decimals, fractions, and percentages

• Make probabilities concrete

words, numbers, images

-Recommendation: use _____, ______, ______ to communicating & explaining risks and to help grasp concepts

-images can also contain jargon

false

Short words (one and two syllables) are always the best choice for clarity, T/F?

any type of communication

Jargon applies to:

a) Spoken words and phrases

b) Spoken and written words and phrases

c) Spoken and written words, phrases and numbers

d) Any type of communication

Speech speed, How long a person talks before stopping, How often people take turns when talking

factors of communication

Teach-back method defined

Evidence-a seed way to confirm you have explained things in a way the listener understands

Undetected communication barriers and misunderstanding

Allowing people explain information in their own words reduces:

pros of using teach-back

1) Improves communication and engagement

2) Improves disease-specific knowledge, understanding, self-efficacy, and adherence

3) Reduces medication errors and mistakes with care instructions

4) Decreases call backs and cancelled appts

5) *Improves patient satisfaction and health outcomes

Using open-ended questions, Keep it conversational and shame-free

Using teach-back effectively includes:

What to do when misunderstanding persists

-Rephrase and explain again

-Include a family member

-Ask another team member to explain

-Take a break

Implementing teach-back in organizations

Start with one person a day

Plan your approach

Use handouts

Share stories

Practice

teach-back method

method for providers to ensure they explained info in a way the patient/client understands

A) Give instructions using plain language

C) Give information that focuses on what the patient or client needs to do

Which of the following are elements of effective teaching-back?

a) Give instructions using plain language.

b) Use non-shaming, closed-ended questions.

c) Give information that focuses on what the patient or client needs to do.

d) Ask patients or clients to repeat your instructions verbatim to ensure they understand.