ICT 327 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Health Literacy, Numeracy

• School: University of Kentucky
• Department: Information Communication Technology
• Course: ICT 327
• Professor: Robert Shapiro

Document Summary

Some leaders in the healthcare arena have emphasized a focus on health literacy to address issues of cost containment, more effective health care delivery, and improved health outcomes. The cost of limited health literacy in the united states is currently between and billion annually. Academic and governmental leaders have discussed these issues, including the impact of low health literacy on overall health outcomes, for decades. By the 70s, policy leaders realized that if individuals could understand more about their bodies and their care, they might become more willing to make lifestyle choices that would keep them out of hospitals and physician offices. The term health literacy was first introduced in 1974. Implicit in most definitions is the notion that health literacy, much like any other type of literacy, goes well beyond mere numeracy and grade level reading ability. Health literacy is rather contextual, and includes socio cultural elements.