Low Functional Health Literacy

The association of the parent’s low functional health literacy level and a child health outcome is reliant on the caregiver’s ability to identify the child’s condition and immediately manage the adolescent’s medical needs. This responsibility of an adult to implement the necessary tasks of administering the correct amounts of medication, promoting adequate nutrition, and providing sufficient safety is further exacerbated by the common barrier reflected in the parents low functional health literacy levels. Studies suggest that the problem of an adults low health literacy is increased by their inability to reach out for fear of embarrassment when inquiring about a pressing health issue that may arise. Parents may make excuses and postpone
Although poor levels of functional health literacy within the elderly populations do contribute to high healthcare costs resulting from issues with poor patient compliance, medication errors, and poor personal health management, one of the pressing factors contributing to the high utilization and readmission rates within the first 30 days of release was due to the failure to clearly understand discharge instructions. As a result of this matter, Medicare spending is projected to increase by 79% between 2010 and 2020 (DeCoster, Ehlman & Conners,
When observing reported readmission rates, the health issues that are most common with the elderly are congestive heart failure, heart attacks and pneumonia (DeCoster, Ehlman & Conners, 2013). Therefore, the ability of the elderly patient populations to successfully follow medication instructions and maintain a clear line of communication with their caregivers are all critical components to a healthy patient-provider experience. Furthermore, with the highest readmission costs in the United States due to elderly related heart issues, the need for a more standardized, patient-centered instructional platform is necessary. To combat the high rate of low literacy and poor cognitive ability with the elderly, the integration of a discharge system following a single patient-centered format, with clear instructional guidelines, would be crucial for the effective adherence of this patient population (Morrow, Weiner, Steinley, Young & Murray,