Health Literacy Basics
Health literacy is essential for both empowering people to make decisions about their own health and addressing the __________ of health.
What is determinants?
The largest organ in the human body, responsible for protection and temperature regulation.
What is the skin?
A chronic disease where the body can’t properly regulate blood glucose levels.
What is diabetes?
The abbreviation Rx on a doctor’s note stands for this.
What is “prescription”?
Assessing health literacy helps guide both policy development and __________ design.
What is intervention?
When institutions ensure that the information and services they provide are easy for everyone to find and understand.
What is organizational health literacy?
The diaphragm separates these two major body cavities.
What are the thoracic and abdominal cavities?
When the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues, it’s called an __________ disease.
What is autoimmune?
BID written on a medication label means this dosing schedule.
What is “twice a day”?
True or False: Health literacy assessments only measure reading level, not understanding or application.
What is false?
About ___ of U.S. adults fall below this level of proficiency in health literacy.
What is 88%?
These structures connect muscles to bones and enable movement at joints.
What are tendons?
A communicable disease preventable by vaccines such as MMR, which protects against measles, mumps, and this third illness.
What is rubella?
PO (per os) indicates a medication should be taken this way.
What is “by mouth” or “orally”?
Assessing literacy is essential before launching a new public health campaign because _____.
What is it ensures information is understandable and actionable?
Personal health literacy is the ability of an individual to ____, ____, and ____ health information to make informed choices about care.
What is find, understand, and use?
What is contract?
A condition where the immune system attacks the protective sheath around nerves, leading to fatigue, weakness, and vision loss.
What is multiple sclerosis (MS)?
If a doctor writes NPO before surgery, it means the patient should do this.
What is “not eat or drink anything” (nothing by mouth)?
Give one real-world consequence of poor health literacy in clinical settings.
What is medication error, delayed care, or misunderstanding of instructions, etc?
Health literacy requires inclusive and equitable access to quality _______ and lifelong learning.
What is education?
Why is the small intestine longer than the large intestine even though it’s called “small”?
What is because “small” refers to diameter, not length — it’s narrower but much longer for absorption.
The disease that damages the optic nerve is called _____?
What is glaucoma?
Explain: Why might misunderstanding abbreviations like TID or PRN pose a serious health risk?
What is incorrect dosing or misuse of medication due to low health literacy?
Public health officials launch a new nutrition program but skip assessing community literacy levels. Six months later, participation and comprehension remain low. Explain why the absence of assessment caused the program to fail.
What is the lack of baseline data on how well people could understand and use health information?