You will probably agree that knowledge, understanding, and wisdom are vital to having a good life.  This statement also imply that adequate health literacy is vital for a healthy life. For example, most people know that healthy diet, exercise and enough rest are needful for good health but many people don’t understand its usefulness nor practice these behaviors consistently. Hence, they have a limited blueprint to healthy living. This same level of understanding is required of patients who take prescribed medications.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defined health literacy as the degree to which individuals can obtain, process, and understand necessary health information. This level of understanding is dependent on the communication skills of the sender and the receiver of the health information as well as other influencing factors.

REQUIREMENTS FOR GOOD HEALTH LITERACY 

Generally, health literacy requires basic numeracy skills — for example, the numbers and units of necessary measurements such as blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels. Numeracy skills also include the ability to read nutrition labels, read prescription labels and count daily pills. Health literacy also consists of the knowledge of essential health topics such as the factors that worsen specific health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, or mental health challenges. Also, health literacy includes the ability to complete data-entry forms in preparation for some health services or a health-related transaction.

HOW TO IMPROVE HEALTH LITERACY

1. Knowledge is progressive and hence there is need for healthcare providers and patients to adapt to new techniques and technology when communicating in ways that the patient will comprehend.
2. Healthcare providers should strive to use a teach-back method when communicating with patients. This process will help both parties understand the message in its entirety.
3. Some people prefer to use technical jargons when communicating. However, it is best to use every day and comprehensible language when communicating health information to a lay audience.
4. The use of some technology can help healthcare providers to communicate health information in audio-recorded media that the patient can play before he/she completes a health task. For example, technologies such as RxTrans can help pharmacists to communicate with patients who have low English literacy or those who are non-English speakers.

CONCLUSION

Improved health literacy will help patients understand their health and how medications can help them. It will enhance patient-provider communication. Most importantly, it will result in improved health outcomes.