Focus on:
Health Literacy
NLM in
Focus: 1.16.2018
 |
To
find out what’s going on in the growing field of health literacy, NLM in Focus
spoke with resident expert Rob Logan, PhD,
in the Office of Communication
and Public Liaison at NLM. Logan is the co-editor of a new book on health
literacy research and practice.
What
are the main points you want the public to know about health literacy?
Health
literacy has an impact on your health and life expectancy as well as your
ability to cope with and navigate the health care delivery system.
Yet
few people are “proficient”—that’s the actual term—or are health literate.
The last
US national assessment suggests only about 12 percent of the population is
health literate, or proficient.
What
about the rest of the world?
It’s
about the same in the countries in the world where health literacy has been
measured.
Sadly,
I suspect health literacy may be low everywhere.
Did
that surprise you?
It
saddened me.
Poor
health literacy is a global concern.
Health
literacy is important to you—whoever you are.
Better
health literacy helps you use the health care delivery system. It improves your
ability to communicate with a physician or health care provider. It improves
your ability to cope. And it very much improves your ability to understand the
directions that you’re given, or to demand an explanation when they aren’t
clear. It even gives you self-confidence.
Better
health literacy also can motivate you to get well. That seems to be the case
for people who have acute and chronic illnesses. Recent research suggests
improved health literacy therapeutically impacts both.
What’s
your favorite definition of health literacy?
That’s
a good question.
There
are a lot of health literacy definitions.
My
favorite, called the Calgary Charter, is a long one, but it’s more
multidimensional than other definitions. The Calgary
Charter defines health literacy this way:
Health
literacy
allows the public and personnel working in all health-related
contexts to find, understand, evaluate, communicate, and use information.
Health
literacy
is the use of a wide range of skills that improve the ability of
people to act on information in order to live healthier lives.
These
skills include reading, writing, listening, speaking, numeracy, and critical
analysis, as well as communication and interaction skills.
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