Health Literacy: a tool for better health outcomes

Health literacy can be understood as cognitive skills of an individual, to help motivate him/her to use available healthcare resources, understand and apply health knowledge to prevent diseases and promote good health. It simply means to be able to comprehend educational pamphlets and directions given by the doctor on a particular health issue.

Health literacy is an emerging concept encompassing health and literacy. It is a critical resource for everyday living. We can take an example of a woman in a rural setting who is pregnant. If she is literate and could understand general instructions given by her doctor, then she can make informed decisions about her health and for her family. These decisions include whether to get ante-natal testing done or to take Iron-folic acid tablets on time or family planning? The timely informed decisions can help reduce maternal and infant mortality. This can result in better utilization of healthcare services and better health outcomes. However, the situation is quite dire in rural areas with illiterate women who do not understand the importance of immunizations, ante natal visits or iron-folic acid supplements.

They have little or no knowledge of family planning and hence have less spacing between their children. This lack of health literacy will adversely affect her health and those of her children. Another example in an urban setting of a teenager engaged in smoking. He may be well educated but he fails to understand the impact of this behavior on his health. Here a more social and behavior determinant of health is interplaying. Clearly education does play a role improving ones understanding of health knowledge but it is not completely necessary. Being able to understand the knowledge and applying it in a lifestyle modification to improve health is of paramount importance.

Health literacy involves knowledge and understanding instructions, reading skills and numerical skills. Numerical skills are useful in understanding medicine dosage and timings. These skills are helpful is an individual’s self health assessment like self breast examination or planning a healthy diet or taking measures to prevent oral cancer. Health education in this comprehensive model aims to understand the determinants of health, encouraging individual or collective practices to modify any determinant for a healthier living. Health literacy promotes empowerment, which is necessary to help build a sustainable society. Individuals comprehending health knowledge, its importance and application can assist in rendering knowledge in others and especially in the younger and vulnerable population.

Imparting health education in the form of IEC (information, education and communication) activities with audio-visuals is vital to improve health literacy among those who have had little or no education. This can help build a stronger and self-sustaining community to aid in prevention of health problems. Sources of health education like television, newspapers, radio and short dramas can help to ameliorate health of the community. Health campaigns in the rural settings can be a challenge, mostly due to lack of education and trust. Compliance with the local health centers and ASHA workers can help overcome this challenge.

The concept of health literacy is not just to understand health information but also to empower individuals to make informed timely decisions for their health and those they care about.