I. What is Health Literacy?
Health literacy focuses on the ability for patients to access, evaluate and apply
information to health-related decisions (Nelson & Staggers, 2018, p.13-14). In fact,
according to the World Health Organization, “…health literacy means more than being
able to read pamphlets and make appointments. By improving people’s access to health
information, and their capacity to use it effectively, health literacy is critical to
empowerment” (who.int, 2019). Health literacy is considered one of the most important
aspects of public health because if the population does not understand what they need
to do about their health, then we, as healthcare workers, are failing them. This concept
pertains to nursing informatics because it helps us, as healthcare workers, understand
what we are presenting well, what we are not presenting well, and finding ways to make
improvements to present the information in a way that will get people to understand
the importance of their health.
II. How Health Literacy is Used in Nursing Informatics
There are multiple different groups, or health service settings or community and
population settings that can be used to measure health literacy in nursing informatics.
For example, in the health service settings, there are individual patient groups, with the
purpose of problem-solving and staff training for the different types of health literacy
needs (Batterham et al, 2016, p.4). There are also individual health services with the
purposes that I have listed in the previous heading: to help us evaluate the strengths,
weaknesses, and learn what we can do to improve health literacy to the patients being
served in those settings. When it comes to community and populations settings, this can
range from local communities/areas to national/international comparisons (Batterham
et al, 2016, p.4). With these areas, the focus is more on learning the strategies that help
promote health literacy on a larger scale. Health literacy information can be gathered by
surveys to help compare the areas between one another, which helps health care
organizations and the departments of public health compare not just within the
communities, but also between states and even countries to see what strategies are
necessary to promote the best health literacy to the people.
III. Health Literacy Strategies
There are multiple different strategies to help promote health literacy. One of the
most powerful strategies that seems to help patients the most is visualizations. When
using a powerful visual with simple points pertaining to the topic seem to be the most
effective way to grasp the audience (Arcia, et al, 2015, p.174). In a study done by the
American Medical Informatics Association (2015), however, showed the power of visuals
with numbers and comparisons. In the study, they found that one of the best visuals that
seem to help promote health literacy to the community are graphs that compares their
groups to others (p.182). The control group only had picture visuals with very few words,
which lead to assumptions and interpretations to what the visuals meant, while the
experimental group had visuals with graphs and analytical information to help explain
the graphs. The experimental group understood the visuals, graphs and information that
was shown to them (Arcia, et al, 2015, p.180), which actually improved their health
literacy and lead those the study pertained to to make changes necessary. In this study,
it showed that the more information for the patients, the better the outcome, contrary
to the belief of a simple visual with a few words
References
Arcia, A., Suero-Tejeda, N., Bales, M. E., Merrill, J. A., Yoon, S., Woollen, J., & Bakken, S. (2015).
Sometimes more is more: iterative participatory design of infographics for engagement of
community members with varying levels of health literacy. Journal of the American Medical
Informatics Association, 23(1), 174–183. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocv079
Batterham, R., Hawkins, M., Collins, P., Buchbinder, R., & Osborne, R. (2016). Health literacy:
applying current concepts to improve health services and reduce health inequalities. Public
Health, 132, 3–12. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2016.01.001
Nelson, R., & Staggers, N. (2018). Health informatics: an interprofessional approach (2nd ed.).
St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
World Health Organization. (2019, February 8). Health Literacy. Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/healthpromotion/health-literacy/en/
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