Health Literacy Vs Health Numeracy

Even though the concept of health literacy is often used to explain health disparities freedman et al in american journal of preventive medicine 36 446 451.

Health literacy vs health numeracy. One reviewer abstracted article information into. Two reviewers independently selected studies that compared outcomes by differences in directly measured health literacy or numeracy levels. The resources on this page briefly explain literacy and numeracy and how they are measured in national education surveys.

Follow study medication instructions. Numeracy skills include being able to. For example people with lower literacy proficiency are more likely than those with better literacy skills to report poor health.

It can be helpful to communicate study medication instructions by applying visuals to make the amount time of day and duration more clear as shown in the example below from nyu s health education and literacy for parents help project. Health literacy and numeracy is the summary of a workshop convened by the institute of medicine roundtable on health literacy in july 2013 to discuss topics related to numeracy including the effects of ill health on cognitive capacity issues with communication of health information to the public and communicating numeric information for. Health literacy is linked to literacy and entails people s knowledge motivation and competences to access understand appraise and apply health information in order to make judgements and take decisions in everyday life concerning health care disease prevention and health promotion to maintain or improve quality of life during the life course.

Choosing between health plans or comparing prescription drug coverage requires calculating premiums copays and deductibles. Limited health literacy happens when people s literacy and numeracy skills are poorly matched with the technical complex and unfamiliar information that organizations make available or health services are too complex and difficult to understand and use effectively. You will find a link to adult health literacy data.

Health related decisions make use of numeracy skills for example counting medication dosages extracting health related information from food packaging or understanding statistical data. The term health literacy was introduced in 1974 in a paper calling for minimum health education standards for all grade school levels in the united states us the world health organization who later defined health literacy as the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to understand and use information in ways that promote.