The Effects of Limited Health Literacy in the Healthcare Context
Within the health care context, patients’ literacy abilities affect their involvement in informed consent, adherence to prescribed treatment, and health-seeking behaviors. Unaddressed inadequacies in health literacy limit the abilities of patients and potential research participants to provide valid informed consent. Clinicians and research investigators have a moral duty to recognize and attend to differences in literacy abilities in their patient and participant populations so that they can uphold a high standard of valid informed consent. The causes and consequences of poor population health literacy exist within the context of various other social determinants of health including education, gender, race and ethnicity, and country of origin. Addressing disparities in health literacy may involve advocating more broadly for marginalized groups and physician recognition of intersectional aspects of health literacy. As digital and mobile technologies become more integrated into the delivery of health information, there are new opportunities for use of multimedia to increase patient understanding and internet dissemination of health information to reach broader audiences. At the same time, innovative changes in the dissemination of health information may lead to the exclusion of groups who lack access to newer technologies or have inadequate digital literacy skills, widening health disparities as a result of health literacy.
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