Health Literacy in an Age of Too Much Information

We have access to more health information than any generation before us.

Lab results show up on our phones before the doctor calls.

Hospital notes appear in patient portals.

We can search a diagnosis before we leave the parking lot.

We can watch fifty videos about a medication before taking the first dose.

And somehow, despite having more information, healthcare can feel harder to understand.

That is where health literacy comes in.

Health literacy is not about intelligence

This is important.

Health literacy does not mean, “Are you smart enough to understand medicine?”

The current federal definition is broader.

Personal health literacy is the ability to find, understand, and use health information and services to make health-related decisions. Healthy People 2030 also recognizes organizational health literacy — the responsibility healthcare organizations have to make information easier for people to find, understand, and use. The CDC explains these definitions and their importance:

https://www.cdc.gov/health-literacy/php/about/index.html

That second part matters enormously.

If a discharge packet is impossible to understand, that is not simply a patient problem.

If five specialists give five different sets of instructions, that is not simply a patient problem.

If a portal releases test results with no context and someone spends the next four hours panicking on Google, that is not simply a patient problem.

Information is not the same thing as understanding

Modern healthcare asks people to navigate:

• —medication lists
• —portals
• —pathology reports
• —insurance language
• —test results
• —referrals
• —discharge instructions
• —consent forms
• —specialist recommendations

Often while they are sick, frightened, exhausted, or helping someone they love.

Even people who normally manage complicated work and family lives can struggle under those conditions.

Digital information created another layer

Online access has huge benefits.

But evaluating digital health information is itself a skill.

The CDC’s discussion of eHealth literacy describes the skills needed to appraise electronic health information and use it to address a health problem. Research summarized there also points to a gap between people’s perception that they can evaluate online information and their confidence in actually judging its quality.

https://www.cdc.gov/health-literacy/php/research-summaries/ehealth.html

Which sounds about right.

We are surrounded by information.

Confidence about what deserves our trust is another matter entirely.

Healthcare organizations have a responsibility here

One of the most important changes in the Healthy People 2030 definition is that it stops putting the whole burden on the patient.

Healthcare systems should use plain language.

Instructions should be usable.

Patients should know who to contact with questions.

Information should be accessible in forms and languages people can understand.

The CDC specifically connects health-literacy practices with building trust.

https://www.cdc.gov/health-literacy/php/about/index.html

A nurse often acts as a translator

Not from “doctor language” to “dumbed-down language.”

From information to action.

What changed?

What do I need to do today?

Which medication am I actually taking?

Who am I supposed to call?

What happens next?

That translation is one of the most valuable things nurses do.

Because health information is only useful if someone can actually do something with it.

The Nursing Suite provides private nursing advocacy, appointment accompaniment, medication support, and healthcare planning across the North Shore and Greater Boston.

Talk to a Nurse if the healthcare information is coming faster than you can make sense of it.

Sources & Further Reading

CDC — What Is Health Literacy?

https://www.cdc.gov/health-literacy/php/about/index.html

CDC — eHealth Literacy

https://www.cdc.gov/health-literacy/php/research-summaries/ehealth.html

Healthy People 2030

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/healthy-people/hp2030/index.html