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Health Literacy
If you have a health condition, such as asthma, being health literate means that you know what asthma is and you know how to treat it. It means you have gone to a trustworthy source, like your doctor or nurse, and received information that you understood. And if you have any breathing troubles, you know that you take a certain number of puffs from your inhaler. You also know when to call the doctor or go to the emergency department for more serious problems.
Steps to Health Literacy
It's important for both kids and adults to be health literate, says Barbara P. Homeier, MD, a pediatrician. Health literacy can be a serious problem for children, people who are older or those who have low language literacy. They may get health information or instructions from unreliable or commercial sources. As a result, they may not know how to best take care of their health or their illness.
To be health literate, a person must:
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The impacts of health illiteracy
It's not easy to be health literate, even if you can read and understand language. Some sources, such as friends or a TV show, might give you wrong information. Other times, the source is good, such as a doctor, but the information given is confusing or unclear. You walk away thinking, "Huh? What am I supposed to do?" It only makes sense when you get good health information and understand it, when you can use it in your life and be healthier.
How do you know if you have a good source for health info? You want the person, book, or Internet site to be reliable and likely to give you correct information. You might ask yourself: How does this person know about health? If someone tells you the best thing for a cold is pickle juice, you know that's not a trustworthy source. They didn't go to medical school and may be just pulling your leg!
But if your doctor or nurse tells you that rest and drinking fluids are good for a cold, you can believe it's true. They went to school to learn about health and it's their job to provide responsible care and information.
Do You Understand?
It's not surprising that health information is sometimes confusing. Health and the body are complicated scientific subjects. What can do if you get health information, but you don't understand it? Ask questions. Ask about websites or books where you could find more information.
In addition to having a good source who has correct information, you need to understand what that source is saying. Maybe someone is talking about eating healthy food or something you read on the Internet about how much exercise you need. If you don't get what the person is saying, or has written, you don't know what to do next.
You can ask questions at a doctor's office. Doctors and nurses are usually in a hurry and may not give you much time to ask questions. Sometimes you don't have questions until later. Who can you turn to ask questions when there is no doctor or nurse available? A reliable resource is the Health Finder of the US Health and Human Services Department.
We all may have trouble following the health advice we get. It can be tough to exercise after a long day at work. It's hard sometimes to eat enough fruits and vegetables or to avoid salty and fatty foods. But the more we all learn about health and start taking these steps on our own, the healthier everyone will be. So tell your friends, tell your kids: Let's all get health literate! And let's work to have good, reliable health and wellness sources in our communities that are ready to answer our questions and help us find help when we need it.
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