Why considering “health literacy” level is important for Family Physicians?

Abstract

Family physicians are challenged with complicated cases every day, on some occasions; these circumstances get more difficult as a result of lack of compliance or poor communication between the patients and health care providers. Today, it is know that health literacy level of the individuals affect how patients interact with their care provider and their compliance to the treatment.Low health literacy levels are not exclusive to a particular region on the globe; reports show that 30% of the European has inadequate literacy level, and 64.6% in Turkey have low or problematic health literacy. Family physicians have a crucial role in identifying patients with low health literacy level and improve it to adequate level. Even though the limited time, work overload are some possible barriers for family physicians, a number of easy-to-use methods are developed to overcome some of these problems in primary care. Red flags have been identified to help family physicians to quickly identify the patients with low health literacy level. After that, in order to provide better communication, following strategies can be used are use of plain language, teach-back, ask me three questions, chunk and check, visual aids & written materials. Increasing health literacy can improve the health and well-being of the population and can also decrease the necessary time with patients to solve problems and prevent unnecessary repetitive attendance to primary health care services. Aile hekimleri her gün karmaşık olgular ile karşılaşmakta olup, bazı durumlarda, hasta uyumsuzluğu veya hasta-hekim iletişim yetersizliği nedeniyle bu durum daha da zorlaşmaktadır. Bugün, sağlık okuryazarlığının hastaların hekimleri ile iletişimlerini ve tedaviye uyumlarını nasıl etkilediği bilinmektedir. Düşük sağlıkokuryazarlığı herhangi bir bölgeyle sınırlı olmamakla birlikte, raporlar Avrupa halkının %30’unun yetersiz seviyeye sahip olduğunu, Türk halkının da %64,6’sının düşük veya sınırlı sağlık okuryazarlığı düzeyine sahip olduğunu göstermektedir. Aile hekimler sağlık okuryazarlık düzeyi düşük hastaları belirlemede ve düşük düzeyleri yeterli sağlık okuryazarlık seviyesine taşımada önemli bir role sahiptir. Kısıtlı zaman ve yoğun iş yükü aile hekimleri için olası engeller olsa da bazı kullanımı kolay teknikler bu sorunların üstesinden gelmek üzere birinci basamak için geliştirilmiştir. Kırmızı bayrak işaretleri hekimlerin sağlık okuryazarlığı düşük hastaları hızlıca belirlemeleri için tanımlanmıştır. Bunun ardından, daha sağlıklı bir iletişim için, yalın dil kullanımı, öğrenileni geri anlatma metodu, bana üç soru sor yöntemi, bilgiyi ver ve kontrol et metodu ve görsel ve yazılı materyal kullanımı gibi stratejiler uygulanabilir. Sağlık okuryazarlığı toplumun sağlık ve iyilik halini geliştirdiği gibi, hastanın problemini çözmekiçin gereken süreyi kısaltıp, gereksiz tekrarlayan birinci basamak başvurularını da önleyebilir.

Keywords

• health literacy,primary care,family medicine

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