Toward a Better Understanding of Patient Health Literacy: A Focus on the Skills Patients Need to Find Health Information

Abstract

While many health literacy assessments exist, this area of research lacks an instrument that isolates and reflects the four components driving this concept (abilities to find, understand, use, and communicate about health information). The purpose of this study was to determine what abilities comprise the first component, how a patient finds health information. Low ( n = 13) and adequate ( n = 14) health literacy patients, and health professionals ( n = 10) described their experiences when looking for health information and the skills they employed to complete these tasks. Major skills/themes elicited included knowing when to search, credibility assessments, finding text and numerical information, interpersonal seeking, technology and online search, and spatial navigation. Findings from this study suggest that each of the dimensions included in the definition of health literacy warrants specific attention and assessment. Given identification of the skills comprising each dimension, interventions targeting deficits across health literacy dimensions could be developed to improve patient health.

Young Women's Perceptions Regarding Communication with Healthcare Providers About Breast Cancer, Risk, and Prevention

“…While interventions 37–39 have been designed to support HCPs in offering evidence-based care and guidance and improving patient health literacy, their effectiveness has not routinely been evaluated among young women and those who may be at increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer. HCPs may benefit from additional training regarding communication with patients, especially those under 45 years and/or with a family history of breast and ovarian cancer, about risk, prevention, and genetic counseling and appropriate testing.…”

Gay Men’s Understanding and Education of New HIV Prevention Technologies in Vancouver, Canada

“…However, just as Voisin and colleagues’ participants worried about misinformation in familial sources of HIV prevention knowledge, our participants expressed concern over the lack of expertise possessed by their partners and peers, especially given the nuanced and challenging nature of NPT knowledge. In short, information was easily located through these various mediums, but finding “good” information was challenging; this issue of quality when seeking health information has been identified as a common problem across health settings (Champlin, Mackert, Glowacki, & Donovan, 2016). Thus, combining factual evidence with relatable experience optimized the acceptability of NPT education, further highlighting the necessity of a combined approach to education and the need to humanize resources accessed through health care providers (HCPs), the Internet, and community campaigns.…”

“…Future research, including quantitative study, would be strengthened by examining NPT education within the context of health literacy – or an individual’s ability to find, understand, utilize, and communicate information – as this will likely offer a more comprehensive, multifaceted view of education and knowledge gaps compared to analyses that only emphasize awareness (Champlin, Mackert, Glowacki, & Donovan, 2016). For example, while many quantitative studies provide data on rates of NPT awareness (Lachowsky et al, 2016; Lin et al, 2016), other studies show that large gaps may exist between levels of awareness and actual understanding (Carter et al, 2015).…”

Sähköiset terveyspalvelut osaksi potilaan arkea

“…] Potilaat hakevat terveyteen ja hyvinvointiin liittyvää tietoa Internetistä [20]. Henkilökohtaisten sähköisten terveystietojen käyttöön vaikuttaa potilaan ikä, koulu-FinJeHeW 2019;11(1-2) 27 tus sekä kokemus terveydenhuollon järjestelmästä yleensä [21][22][23]. Luottamuksellinen potilas-lääkärisuhde ja sähköisen tiedon käyttö yhdessä terveydenhuollon ammattilaisen kanssa vastaanotolla lisäävät potilaan sitoutumista hyvinvointinsa ja terveyden ylläpitämiseen [13,20].…”

“…Luottamuksellinen potilas-lääkärisuhde ja sähköisen tiedon käyttö yhdessä terveydenhuollon ammattilaisen kanssa vastaanotolla lisäävät potilaan sitoutumista hyvinvointinsa ja terveyden ylläpitämiseen [13,20]. Clarke ja kumppaneiden mukaan on tavoiteltavaa lisätä potilaan ja hänen läheisten tietoa ja taitoa hakea Internetistä luotettavaa tietoa [20] niin, että he hallitsevat tiedon kriittisen arvioinnin [14,22,23]. Lääkärin kannustus sähköisen tiedon käyttöön on osoittautunut merkittäväksi muutoksessa [24] ja potilaalle on tärkeää onnistumisen kokemus omien terveystietojen haussa [23,25].…”