Ohw the Rural Elderly View Literacy in Their Lives

Perceptions about eating experiences of low‐literate older adults with heart disease: a qualitative study

“…Our result of ‘eating‐related hardships because of low literacy’ echoes previous reports that inadequate literacy skills negatively affected older adults’ lives (Freer ) and that low‐literate adults lived in fear that their poor reading skills would be exposed (Brez & Taylor ). Similarly, people with poor reading abilities were ashamed of their circumstances and the resulting low self‐esteem and self‐deprecation made them uncomfortable in interpersonal relationships (Greenberg & Lackey ).…”

Self-Care and Medical Treatment-Seeking Behaviors of Older Adults in Rural Areas of Taiwan: Coping With Low Literacy

“…Most of them also tend to rely on friends or family members reading for them. 11 According to the results in this study, older adults are affected by their literacy level and tend to reduce or delay their medical treatments. If medical treatment is necessary, they will choose nearby clinics or health centers that they are familiar with to avoid troubling others and will go to larger hospitals that are farther away only in the event of a major or chronic disease and with their family members’ assistance.…”

“…They choose to trust medical staffs or volunteers and receive assistance from them. In addition, as discovered by Freer, 11 because they feel ashamed, patients with low literacy are unwilling to let medical staffs know their problems or deliberately conceal their conditions to avoid feeling embarrassed. 20 Results also demonstrated that because of their shyness, older adults do not actively express the effects of low literacy on their lives.…”

“…10 The lack of adequate literacy skills negatively influences the lives of older adults with respect to their sense of control over security, resource management, self-esteem, social interactions, clear and complete expression of needs, employment, and dependency. 11 Severe medical errors can occur because of numerous patients’ inability to read the text on medicine labels. The effects of inadequate health literacy include a poorer health status, insufficient understanding of medical conditions and treatments, poor knowledge of and less use of preventive medical services, poor adherence to doctors’ advice, higher hospitalization rates, higher medical expenses, and higher depression rates.…”