When was the last time you received a prescription and weren’t quite sure about the dosing instructions? Or maybe you were taking your child to the pediatrician and did not understand a consent form for treatment. Perhaps you couldn’t make sense of health insurance deductibles. Sound familiar? These scenarios all tell us about our level of health literacy. If you struggle with understanding health matters, you’re not alone. Health literacy here in the United States is alarmingly low. Based on a study conducted by Pfizer, only 12% of American adults have proficient health literacy.
What Does It All Mean?
According to the CDC, personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to make informed health-related decisions for themselves and others.
Nearly nine out of 10 adults struggle with health literacy. Even people with high literacy skills may have low health literacy skills in certain situations. This involves more than just reading, it’s about comprehension and application. It’s about being informed about a condition you have, like a food allergy, and fully understanding that you need to, for example, check labels before you consume food.
Poor health literacy can cause big health problems. Face it, if you don’t understand care, treatment, or other instructions, you may exacerbate a health problem, maybe miss appointments, or take the wrong medication.
There are some factors that can influence an individual’s health literacy, including living in poverty, education, race/ethnicity, age, and disability. But really, most of the population is unclear about matters of health.
What’s Being Done To Combat The Problem?
Through public health initiatives, experts are trying to bridge the gap by advising healthcare workers to keep their messaging clear and concise to improve health literacy. The goal of public health is to promote and protect the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work, and play. Much of the work public health workers do is setting standards for prevention and promoting wellness by encouraging healthy behaviors. Public health saves money, improves our quality of life, helps children thrive, and reduces human suffering.
This runs the gamut from teaching the public about the need for vaccinations and nutritious school lunches to air quality and the prevention of diseases. You can only imagine how busy public health officials are with matters like COVID-19, seasonal flu, and ongoing health issues like the risks of alcohol and tobacco.
With October being Health Literacy Month, Any Lab Test Now® is dedicated to ensuring that you are informed about your family’s health. Our goal is to improve your family’s wellness. We do that by providing direct access to thousands of lab tests ranging from the CBC panel, which provides a snapshot of your health, to the Comprehensive Metabolic Panel, which gives a clear picture of your overall health. Plus, we recommend including the Lipid Panel to determine if you are at risk for heart disease. These are basic tests everyone needs because they provide conclusive answers about your health.
Getting lab testing done with Any Lab Test Now® is only part of the equation. We want to improve your health literacy by not only providing clear, concise, and understandable results but also empowering you to glean additional information with our DialCare service. This allows you to consult with a provider about your results. The clarity you receive from a medical professional can affect the way you handle your health and can be lifesaving.
Remember, at Any Lab Test Now®, the lab tests we provide are confidential, affordable, and convenient. You own the results, and you choose how to proceed with them, whether that means consulting with your provider for further details or perhaps getting the peace of mind you were seeking.
Obtaining lab testing through blood tests is a very precise indicator of your health. It tracks your overall well-being, can detect issues with organs or how well you are managing a disease. It is an important look at your overall wellness.
Stay on top of your family’s health and improve your health literacy by taking charge of your wellness. Any Lab Test Now® can help by providing the lab tests you need to ensure your health. Call now to schedule an appointment at a location near you.
Any Lab Test Now® — The More You Know… Lab Testing for Every Need
