Promoting health literacy in chronic illness care: challenges and opportunities
Start Date
26-3-2021 10:00 AM
End Date
26-3-2021 10:45 AM
Description
This presentation aims to share the 10-year research experience in health literacy in Chinese population. By the time when I started with health literacy research, not many people were aware of health literacy issues. There is a big debate why we need ‘health literacy’ as we have already developed quite well in health promotion. How to measure ‘health literacy’? What should be measured? The lack of culturally sensitive validated instruments for Chinese population was a big challenge. Without proper instruments, it is hard to extend our understanding of health literacy and its relationship to other health outcomes. My project team therefore started to develop health literacy scales (Chinese Health Literacy Scale for Diabetes (CHLSD), Chinese Health Literacy Scale for Chronic Care (CHLCC) and Chinese Health Literacy Scale for Low Salt Consumption). These instruments are now publicly accessible and being stored in Boston University Health Literacy Tool Shed. Investigation has been made easy with validated instruments. The understanding of the relationship between health literacy and other health outcomes (hospitalisation, use of emergency room, etc.) was found. The most interesting one is the relationship with sunlight exposure behaviour (a way to build up vitamin D). Flying all the way to American Los Angeles, I then recognised how culture has affected our health belief and behaviour. A qualitative study was then done to explore how health literacy, culture, social environment was interlinked. Health literacy is a type of power - we advocate the development of interventions to support individuals to build up health literacy. Typical example is the use of comic books to improve medication compliance and health literacy among older adults (this was a service learning project in which students were trained to provide health literacy training to the residents of public estates). Technology platforms (such as mobile app, digital camera, mobile phone, social media such as Facebook, wearable device) are the means to support individuals to access information, interpret the gained health messages and make final health decision. A 2-year prospective study clearly showed how we use a mobile app to identify individuals with undiagnosed diabetes and pre-diabetes and support their growth in health literacy and health decision making (with the recommendations given in the app, high-risk app users modified their dietary habits and reduced sedentary lifestyles). In the recent years, focuses are made on dementia literacy (mental health literacy) and how technology can be used to support caregivers’ access and interpret health information. In conclusion, health literacy is still an area of interest which I think I need another 10 to 20 years to investigate. Research is warrant in health literacy for all nations – it is all about our capacity to improve our health.
Recommended Citation
Leung, Y. M. A. (2021, March). Promoting health literacy in chronic illness care: challenges and opportunities. Keynote speech presented at the Postgraduate Conference on Interdisciplinary Learning: Re-Imagining Postgraduate Studies in the 21st Century and Beyond. Lingnan University, Hong Kong.
Promoting health literacy in chronic illness care: challenges and opportunities
This presentation aims to share the 10-year research experience in health literacy in Chinese population. By the time when I started with health literacy research, not many people were aware of health literacy issues. There is a big debate why we need ‘health literacy’ as we have already developed quite well in health promotion. How to measure ‘health literacy’? What should be measured? The lack of culturally sensitive validated instruments for Chinese population was a big challenge. Without proper instruments, it is hard to extend our understanding of health literacy and its relationship to other health outcomes. My project team therefore started to develop health literacy scales (Chinese Health Literacy Scale for Diabetes (CHLSD), Chinese Health Literacy Scale for Chronic Care (CHLCC) and Chinese Health Literacy Scale for Low Salt Consumption). These instruments are now publicly accessible and being stored in Boston University Health Literacy Tool Shed. Investigation has been made easy with validated instruments. The understanding of the relationship between health literacy and other health outcomes (hospitalisation, use of emergency room, etc.) was found. The most interesting one is the relationship with sunlight exposure behaviour (a way to build up vitamin D). Flying all the way to American Los Angeles, I then recognised how culture has affected our health belief and behaviour. A qualitative study was then done to explore how health literacy, culture, social environment was interlinked. Health literacy is a type of power - we advocate the development of interventions to support individuals to build up health literacy. Typical example is the use of comic books to improve medication compliance and health literacy among older adults (this was a service learning project in which students were trained to provide health literacy training to the residents of public estates). Technology platforms (such as mobile app, digital camera, mobile phone, social media such as Facebook, wearable device) are the means to support individuals to access information, interpret the gained health messages and make final health decision. A 2-year prospective study clearly showed how we use a mobile app to identify individuals with undiagnosed diabetes and pre-diabetes and support their growth in health literacy and health decision making (with the recommendations given in the app, high-risk app users modified their dietary habits and reduced sedentary lifestyles). In the recent years, focuses are made on dementia literacy (mental health literacy) and how technology can be used to support caregivers’ access and interpret health information. In conclusion, health literacy is still an area of interest which I think I need another 10 to 20 years to investigate. Research is warrant in health literacy for all nations – it is all about our capacity to improve our health.