But the pandemic magnifies how troubling it is.
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| Health Literacy |
A Michigan library had to ask patrons
to stop microwaving books to kill the coronavirus after noticing returned books
with scorched pages. The Cleveland Clinic issued a public warning about the
danger of using vodka concoctions as a hand sanitizer when recipes started to
circulate.
Then came the surge of calls to poison
control centers about bleach. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
had to double-down on warnings not to drink it or rinse food in it.
Fear of covid-19 is exposing a lack of
health literacy in this country that is not new. The confusion is amplified
during a health emergency, however, by half-truths swirling in social media and
misinformed statements by people in the public eye.
One in five people struggle with
health information, says Michael
S. Wolf, director of the Center for Applied Health Research on Aging at the
Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
“It’s easy to misunderstand [medical
information],” says Wolf, who is also founding director of the medical school’s
Health Literacy and Learning Program. Some will be too ashamed to say so while
others won’t realize they missed a critical detail.
The people most likely to have low health literacy include
those dying in greater numbers from covid-19: older adults, racial and ethnic
minorities, nonnative English speakers, and people with low income and
education levels.
But low health literacy cuts across all demographics, stresses Alison Caballero, director of the Center for Health Literacy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “Given the right headache or stress about a sick child, [gaps in comprehension] can happen to anyone. When you don’t feel well, you don’t think as clearly.”
Health literacy is not about reading
skills or having a college degree. It means you know how to ask a doctor the
right questions, read a food label, understand what you’re signing on a consent
form, and have the numeric ability to analyze relative risks when making
treatment decisions. READ
MORE ➤➤
Health
2019: Health Literacy in the 50 States, Health IQ (an Insurance Co.)
2018: How Health Literacy Got Started, Helen Osborne
2017: Hidden Cost of Healthcare System Complexity, Accenture
2015: Health Literacy & Patient Engagement, 12th Annual Report, US HHS Sep 2015
2011: Health Literacy Interventions Outcomes: Updated Systematic Rvw, AHRQ
2010: Health Literacy, NNLM
2010: Health Literacy: Accurate Accessible Actionable Health Info. for All, CDC
2009: Reaching America’s Health Potential Among Adults, RWJ Foundation
2009: Low Health Literacy, NAAL 2003
2004: Literacy and Health in America, ETS
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