MIDLAND, Texas — It's important to make the most informed decisions about your health.
But a statistic from the CDC says that 9 out of 10 adults in the US have poor health literacy.
"The general definition of health literacy is it's the ability of an individual to understand and use information about their health to make informed decisions and make health decisions for themselves," said Dr. Lawrence Wilson, Vice President for Medical Affairs at Midland Memorial Hospital.
According to Dr. Wilson, poor health literacy can be found in people from all walks of life.
“You could be a very literate person and understand numbers really well as well, but if you don’t understand health and how your body works and other issues like that there can still be a disconnect,” he continued.
Hospitals like Midland Memorial are aware of the trend and have some ideas of why there might be that disconnect with what’s being discussed.
“Some of it is just in a foreign language in a sense. You know, there’s a lot of acronyms and terminology and statistics and things that might be used. And also, that you’re talking about some emotionally charged areas when somebody first comes upon a new diagnosis or new medical problem; their brain might go into a space about ‘How am I going to live with this? What am I going to be doing?’ other issues and not really paying attention any longer to what’s being discussed,” Dr. Wilson also said.
Dr. Wilson says simple things patients and family members can do to improve their health literacy is write down questions they have before they go see the doctor.
As well as write down the answers that were given while there.
You can also bring a trusted family member or friend to the visit, that way they might catch something that you might’ve missed.