The May 9, 2019 Department of Internal Medicine’s Medical Grand Rounds, “The Hidden Risk Factor: Examining the Impact of Limited Health Literacy & Practical Strategies to Address It,” was presented by Alani Gregory, MD, chief resident, Internal Medicine Primary Care Residency Program.
Gregory began with defining the term health literacy as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic information and services needed to make appropriate decisions about their health, and said while it is a ‘fairly new concept in medicine and public health,’ it is a prevalent problem that is ‘near and dear to my heart.’
She cited data from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, which divided health literacy into four categories: below basic, basic, intermediate, and proficient. 77 million Americans had a limited health literacy level. Gregory also listed risk factors for health literacy such as age, ethnic/racial minority, being uninsured or publicly insured, and having a low education level. Additionally, other factors may cause health literacy challenges such as psycho-social stressors.
Gregory instructed the audience to consider other ‘red flags’ that could indicate that their patient was at risk. Health literacy has been shown to have an impact on patient outcomes and healthcare costs.
She shared the top five skills that physicians can use to increase a patient’s understanding of their appointment and urged those in attendance to implement them in their patient interactions.
“Try these skills out in your next clinical encounter with patients,” urged Gregory. “These skills do take practice and ongoing use, but in time, it can become second nature.”
Lastly, she shared the practices that Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Health have implemented to assist physicians and patients with health literacy.
“While there are lots of people working to improve health literacy, there is still a lot of work to be done nationally and here within our own healthcare system,” said Gregory.
To learn more about Gregory’s list of five skills for physicians and how to put them into practice, review the video from yesterday’s Medical Grand Rounds.
To learn more about the Residency Training Programs within the Section of General Internal Medicine, visit Residency Training Programs.