Health literacy reflects how easily an individual can find, comprehend, and use information related to health and medical care. Ensuring physical and mental health and taking timely treatment measures are vital for every person. One should understand that poor health literacy affects not just a person’s state of health but it correlates with unsatisfactory treatment results and a low level of seeking medical help. Low medical literacy is widespread, and most American adults lack medical awareness (Polster, 2018). Poor health literacy is one of the most significant problems in the modern world, taking into account legal, ethical, and social ramifications.
Legal Ramification
In conjunction with legal ramifications, poor health literacy can adversely impact a patient’s outcome, especially in the context of orientation on the healthcare environment, understanding rights, legal guarantees, and the system of copays and insurance deductibles. Simply put, a person must study the fundamental legislative basis within the framework of public health protection to know about patients’ rights when contacting a medic. Incompetence in legal matters entails the presence of poor quality and low availability of medical care or its absence at all. For example, an individual may not know that the state covers some part of medical aid, and an employer is engaged in paying for the insurance policy. Consequently, this citizen is afraid in advance of high service prices, doing self-diagnosis and self-medication.
In addition, there are indicative cases when a patient does not go to court due to a medical worker’s negligent approach to a patient during the diagnostic and treatment process. According to some legal aspects, a patient should count on a respectful and humane attitude on the part of medical and service personnel, and if one does not know about it, there can be highly unpleasant consequences for a patient. Patient’s rights are enshrined at the legislative level; however, questions and disagreements on this matter still regularly arise. Moreover, the legality of medical intervention occupies a special place without a patient’s consent.
Ethical Ramifications
Relying on ethical ramifications, low medical literacy can cause a severe blow to a patient’s health and lead to complications and mortality. Today, there are imbalances and disparities in the healthcare sector, and this phenomenon is unethical and expensive in its essence and nature (Polster, 2018). It is unfair when the health system focuses on the distribution of resources and other processes that cause certain health inequalities, such as systematic health inequalities between certain social groups. For example, a patient does not seek advice from a specialist due to fear of stigma and discrimination based on national, racial, social, and other differences. However, low medical literacy does not allow a person to deal with the problem of inequality and injustice armed with knowledge about medical ethics and the rights of both a citizen and a patient.
Moreover, people who do not know how to interpret medical information successfully often harm their bodies and “experiment” due to improper use of pills, non-use of medical services, suboptimal treatment of chronic diseases, and inadequate response to critical moments. The culture of proper medication intake in the United States has poorly developed: a small proportion of people with chronic conditions regularly follow medical recommendations. Unfortunately, violating doctor’s orders often leads to losing control over disease and its progression.
Social Ramifications
Similarly, as well as legal and ethical issues, social ramifications and poor health literacy negatively affect a person’s health, well-being, and condition. The social disadvantage has a close, deep connection with limited health literacy and, as a result, is the leading cause of frequent illnesses and repeated hospitalizations of a patient, low adherence to treatment, and life expectancy. For example, people with cognitive or mental disabilities often face the problem of access to adequate treatment and interaction with healthcare professionals who could direct their actions concerning prevention and treatment in the right direction (Polster, 2018). Limited medical literacy often accompanies such social and behavioral factors as a low level of education, low social status, and bad habits. However, the levels of medical literacy in each particular population are often unknown and need to be studied, as they are key to the development and application of effective interventions. Therefore, poor health literacy is an urgent public health problem in the context of social issues, which can exacerbate existing health inequalities and, in particular, harm the health of socially unprotected categories of the population and vulnerable residents.
Impact
Without any doubt, the problem of low literacy of the population regarding their health cannot but concern me when entering the profession. As a medical specialist and a professional in my field, I must be involved in an active and continuous process of supporting the medical literacy of people. Interacting with patients, I should help them, mentor them, and direct their knowledge to provide self-service and comprehensive treatment outside a medical institution’s walls. Due to my assistance and support, patients will receive the most effective and productive recommendations for preventing and treating specific ailments. Starting small, I will contribute to the nation’s enlightenment and the well-being of the state as a whole. As a result, people will feel healthier, more energetic, and more cheerful, and their working capacity and task performance will improve.
Promoting Positive Changes
To promote positive changes, especially in improving medical literacy, as a nurse, I can use strategies based on creating a favorable atmosphere and building good relationships with patients. Furthermore, providing information in a simple and accessible language, assistance in documentation, and developing training materials and programs will promote an atmosphere devoid of shame and embarrassment. One should remember that even a well-educated patient may have difficulties interpreting and analyzing specific information. Therefore, using “everyday” words rather than medical professionalisms will help convey complex health concepts to people (UnitedHealth Group, 2020). When explaining, visual materials should be used: diagrams, drawings, albums, and videos.
Moreover, one should not neglect the tactics of getting feedback by asking questions. For example, to check whether a patient understood the appointments and instructions, one should ask them to repeat what a medical worker said in their own words. It is necessary to direct efforts to combat bias and discrimination since stigma is a serious barrier to preventing diseases, making people “invisible” and inaccessible to health services. For instance, this can be done via the Internet and by indicating the phone numbers of organizations in brochures, where one can undergo a medical examination for free of a vulnerable category of citizens and get support.
Conclusion
Summarizing the above, one should state that poor health literacy is one of the main problems in American society that requires special attention and a unique approach to its eradication. Ignorance and misunderstanding of the basic concepts of health and the body entail undesirable consequences for the human body, relying on legal, ethical, and social aspects. However, when I enter the profession, I will face this concern, which I will have to solve with other specialists and direct efforts to educate citizens and eliminate stigmatization.
References
Polster, D. S. (2018). Confronting barriers to improve healthcare literacy and cultural competency in disparate populations. Nursing2018, 48(12), 28-33. Web.
UnitedHealth Group. (2020). Improving health literacy could prevent nearly 1 million hospital visits and save over $25 billion a year. Web.