Understanding health phrases can be tough. UNT Fort Worth Health Literacy Lab Director Dr. Teresa Wagner shares tips on building your health literacy.
TEMPLE, Texas — Being healthy is more than just going to the doctor or just watching your calories. But sometimes learning about how to take care of your body can be confusing.
Doctors can use words and phrases that other people may not be used to. Knowing and understanding terms and topics about your health is called health literacy.
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According to the CDC, health literacy is the ability to find, understand and use information to make health-related decisions for themselves or others.
However, there is also organizational health literacy, which works in reverse. Organizational health literacy focuses on health providers — like doctors, nurses and other health professionals — making health topics easier for you to understand so others can make health choices.
“A lot of people are not comfortable questioning providers,” Ph.D. Teresa Wagner, director of UNT Fort Worth’s Health Literacy Lab said. “So that’s an issue, because they’ll say they understand even if they don’t.”
In 2019, Health and Human Services found only about 12 percent of adults are considered health literate.
Governor Greg Abbott even declared October as Health Literacy Month to encourage more people to take charge of their health.
Yet, being health literate isn’t so cut and dry, especially when you get a diagnosis at the doctor.
“When you’re handed a catastrophic diagnosis that you have to make decisions about, you’re going to have low health literacy as well,” Wagner said. “Because many times we try to educate people when they’re still in shock.”
Tips to help build your literacy
When in doubt, never be afraid to ask questions. Nothing is more important than your health.
Wagner recommends always walking out knowing three things:
What’s your problem? What do you need to do to feel better? Why will this work?
While the first two seem obvious, knowing why it works to fix the problem will make you more likely to follow through on your treatment or course of action.
Also, when it comes to doctors visits you can always:
Write your questions before your visit Bring someone your trust like a friend or loved oneAsk your doctor if you can record your visit so you can look back on it and see what you need help understanding for next time.
For parents with kids, talk to them about health issues, their body and healthy habits so they can start building their health literacy muscles.
Forming healthy habits and learning about health topics can be daunting but remember when in doubt, just ask for help.
“There’s no magic bullet for sure, but there are a lot of good resources and a lot of great experts that are leading the way,” Wagner said.