Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Health literacy still an issue...

As reported in the New York Times article "The Importance of Knowing What the Doctor Is Talking About," health literacy, or rather the lack thereof, is an issue for all patients. How can patients comply with doctor's orders when they never understood them in the first place? Some tips from the article for patients:

Do not wait until doctors become better at communicating. If you want the best medical care, you have to take the initiative. If the doctor says something you do not understand, ask that it be repeated in simpler language. If you are given a new set of instructions, repeat them back to the doctor to confirm your understanding. If you are given a new device to use, demonstrate how you think you are to use it.

Insist that conversations about serious medical matters take place when you are dressed and in the doctor’s office. Take notes or take along an advocate who can take notes for you. Better yet, tape-record the conversation to replay it at home for you and your family or another doctor.
Click here to read the entire article (registration required).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The REALM is an incomplete assessment of health literacy and The New York Times putting that forth only further misleads physicians and the public.

The REALM and the TOFHLA (another attempt at measuring health literacy) are both incomplete and if they become the standard for health literacy the field will be weakened as a result.

On top of that, resources in clinical settings would be much better spent lowering barriers to information for everyone rather than identifying and labeling some individuals as lacking health literacy. Using health literacy measures in that way is an approach that lets public health professionals and physicians off the hook - allowing them to think 'it is their problem, not ours'.

This is just another case of the old paradigm still having its way while the reality of the public health situation is far more complex.