engleski

The characteristics and importance of health literacy

There is a discrepancy between people’s skills and the demand for health literacy. It can be a hidden problem that may not be recognized or it may be neglected by policy makers and healthcare professionals. The goal of this contribution is to explain the relatively neglected issue of health literacy with the particular intention to propose measures for improvement. Around the world millions of adults, particularly those with low literacy skills or those who are confused about healthcare problems, are unable to understand complex health- related texts and materials. Furthermore, a patient may be ashamed to openly admit that he or she faces serious problems in understanding health information. Health literacy is a fairly recent, but increasingly significant tool of public health systems around the world. Its main value is its all-embracing nature which bonds health and medical experts with educational specialists and creates the possibility of an accessible, understandable and efficient provision of complex health information to the patients and general public. As a measure for improvement, it is useful if healthcare programs also take into account the measures for improved health literacy. In achieving the desired high- quality transmission of health information, there are many supplementary methods like telehealth (and/or telemedicine), digital literacy, the genome-based health information approach and others.

Health literacy ; health information ; telehealth ; telemedicine ; healthcare provision

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