Improving health outcomes with better patient understanding and education

Abstract

A central plank of health care reform is an expanded role for educated consumers interacting with responsive health care teams. However, for individuals to realize the benefits of health education also requires a high level of engagement. Population studies have documented a gap between expectations and the actual performance of behaviours related to participation in health care and prevention. Interventions to improve self-care have shown improvements in self-efficacy, patient satisfaction, coping skills, and perceptions of social support. Significant clinical benefits have been seen from trials of self-management or lifestyle interventions across conditions such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, heart failure and rheumatoid arthritis. However, the focus of many studies has been on short-term outcomes rather that long term effects. There is also some evidence that participation in patient education programs is not spread evenly across socio economic groups. This review considers three other issues that may be important in increasing the public health impact of patient education. The first is health literacy, which is the capacity to seek, understand and act on health information. Although health literacy involves an individual’s competencies, the health system has a primary responsibility in setting the parameters of the health interaction and the style, content and mode of information. Secondly, much patient education work has focused on factors such as attitudes and beliefs. That small changes in physical environments can have large effects on behavior and can be utilized in self-management and chronic disease research. Choice architecture involves reconfiguring the context or physical environment in a way that makes it more likely that people will choose certain behaviours. Thirdly, better means of evaluating the impact of programs on public health is needed. The Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework has been promoted as one such potential approach.

The Herzl Patient Health Information Service: An innovative solution to the problem of informing patients in primary care

“…The HIP was also asked to create an extensive annotated bibliography of recent evidence on the controversial topic of PSA screening for prostate cancer in order to help HPs decide whether to recommend it. 4 Calculated over a 16 month period from the time of the new hospital website on 15 June 2009 to 30 September 2010. 5 With approval from the hospital's Clinical Ethics Office.…”

“…The website received approximately 350 visits per month, 4 the top three topics being vaccinations, breastfeeding, and pregnancy and prenatal testing. Handouts covered the following topics: prenatal screening, pregnancy, teen health, exercise, menopause, heart health, mental health, infant and child care, pain management, diabetes, and breastfeeding.…”

“…Patients and families who receive information are better able to participate in healthcare decisions and have improved health outcomes and increased satisfaction with their care [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. A proliferation of online health information makes it difficult for patients and families to navigate to the most reliable and up-to-date information.…”

Health Seeking Behavior: Concept Analysis

“…Moreover, a systematic review from Adams, 2010 [37] discovered that education intervention is effective intervention to improve the health seeking behavior. The education interventions to improve the health seeking behaviors should be adjusted to the target population or socioeconomic target group.…”

Patient education best practice; enhancing physiotherapy students’ self-efficacy and skills

“…Patient education as an intervention involves many variables including communication and collaboration between patient and professional, adequate environmental factors conducive to learning and ultimately a patient who is ready and willing to engage in learning (Adams, 2010). This makes patient education as an intervention much more complex and variable than other clinical skills that are considered more procedural in nature (Rindflesch, 2009).…”