Health Literacy Levels In Australia

The majority 59 of australians are functionally health illiterate 2 but there are no visible signs.

Health literacy levels in australia. This has been a driver for health literacy at the local level with local health networks primary health networks and community organisations designing and implementing locally appropriate health literacy interventions. In addition to health literacy there are a number of socially based determinants of health that impact on australian women s ability to control their own health or experience health equity across the lifespan. While 17 4 per cent of 65 74 year olds in the broader population have adequate health literacy levels only 3 4 per cent of cald individuals in the same age group have adequate health literacy levels.

Low health literacy is common in australia. However people aged 18 24 were more likely to strongly agree 39 that they had social support for health compared to people aged 65 and older 20 domain 4 5. In 2006 41 of australians aged 15 74 were assessed as having adequate or more than adequate health literacy skills abs 2008b.

Health literacy is a complex and challenging area for health service organisations. Individual health literacy measures can also be unreliable unless fit for a specific purpose and difficult to administer. Half 50 of all people aged 30 39 had health literacy skills that were adequate or better.

Less than one quarter 22 of people aged 60 74 had health literacy skills that were adequate or better. For people living in major cities in australia 42 achieved a health literacy skill level 3 or above with similar proportions of people living in remote regions and inner regions achieving at this level 39 and 38 respectively. This means for example that only 40 of adults can understand and follow health messages in the way in which they are usually presented.

Some examples of activities being undertaken at the national and community levels to improve health literacy are provided below. The exception was the higher proportion of residents of the australian capital territory whose health literacy was at level 3 or higher 56 with most other states and the northern territory around 40. Eligible english arabic and vietnamese patients with cancer and survivors n 50 of each language group will be invited to complete a questionnaire in their preferred language containing the health literacy questionnaire the ehealth literacy scale.

Overall survey results show australian consumers generally have a healthy understanding when it comes to health literacy. Methods and analysis levels and correlates of health and ehealth literacy will be evaluated using a cross sectional self report questionnaire. The 2006 alls found 60 of adults to be performing at the lowest levels of health literacy when assessed for prose literacy document literacy numeracy and problem solving 7 determinants of health literacy.