Learning to "read" health

You can’t seek to broadly define health until you address the idea of health literacy. Just like with languages, a person who doesn’t speak the language can't understand how you define words. Like any form of literacy, there are varying levels that people can be comfortable engaging in. I have personally come across patients who are diligent at taking their medications but have no idea why they are taking them. Though they are taking steps to ensure their health, they don’t fully comprehend the dynamics of their health, they just know enough to get by. The above video provides a definition of health literacy, guidelines for recognizing a patient's level of health literacy, and tips to make the patient feel more comfortable with managing their own health (Vancouver Coastal Health, 2014).

#whatishealth #healthliteracy #MHST601