Health Literacy

Health literacy is a term that is not widely understood by the public. It is defined as "the extent to which an individual has the ability to access, process, and understand the services necessary to prevent or treat basic health information and diseases necessary for making appropriate health decisions" (Health Literacy, 2014). The level of health literacy depends on age, educational background, socio-economic status and cultural background. Patients with low health literacy are more difficult to navigate through health care systems.

Understanding the literacy rate and health literacy rate Understanding the literacy rate and health literacy rate is important to understanding the impact it has on health impacts of customers. In addition, the ability of nurses to better educate their clients is to understand these terms. Literacy is a dynamic and complex multilevel theme, in short, it is a collection of skills (Keefe & Copeland) such as reading and writing ability, speaking ability, computing power, ability to acquire knowledge and information.

Health literacy is defined as "ability to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services necessary for individuals to make appropriate health decisions." Conditions encountered by professional communication skills and health system 6 These problems affect how people look for a doctor, how to read medical guidance, or how to take other health-related behaviors. In addition, we need to take these measures. Such action often requires a realistic understanding of health and illness. People with low health literacy often lack this knowledge.

Health literacy differs from literacy because it is the ability to understand health terms and apply that knowledge to healthcare (Mayer and Villaire, 2007). However, because people who can not read or write are difficult to understand terms of health, reading and writing ability plays a role in health literacy. When watching a movie about health literacy in the classroom, I can not help feeling uncomfortable when I meet an adult with junior high school literacy skills (Kalmbach, 2003). This makes me wonder how many people in this country are illiterate and how this plays a role in health care.