Health Literacy and Medical Policy Advocacy

Abstract

In 2014, almost one third of the world's population had access to the fixed Internet through individual home computers or mobile devices, with China and the United States being the top users. Introduction of mobile devices produced significant shifts in access to information. The network penetration is now approaching the size of the world population, providing more convenient, affordable, on demand, and on the go services. This expanded access has led to a new global cyber-society, which is influencing socioeconomic, political, and educational developments. Medical and public health workers, professional societies, educators, and publishers, are either exploring or already using social media for research, information dissemination and educational purposes (Djuricich, 2014; Frosch et al., 2011). Online social networking rapidly expands its reach to health consumers, patients, and advocates. Unfortunately many websites can also contain misleading information (Phillips, Wang, & Guenzel, 2005). Thus, health literacy is becoming an important asset to promote health safety while navigating social media “health” networks, in interpreting, understanding, and analyzing the information, and effectively participating in advocacy programs. While access to social media has dramatically increased, the same is not true for health literacy. Socioeconomic disparities affect health literacy in developed economy countries (Champlin & Mackert, 2015; Chesser, Burke, Reyes, & Rohrberg, 2015), while the information from developing countries is sparse or nonexistent. Health literacy, especially underpinned by evidence, is a scarce commodity, but when used effectively can lead to beneficial outcomes. Smoking cessation; HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment; and, more recently, political actions taken by the European Union (EU) and the United States to combat microbial resistance through comprehensive prevention plans, legislation, and research, are success stories. In contrast, we still struggle with inadequate immunization rates for preventable infections worldwide, youth smoking, and the rising threat of sexually transmitted disease. Several models for developing health literacy programs have been identified (Champlin & Mackert, 2015; Sørensen et al., 2012). These models can be adapted by governments for conducting educational campaigns and empowering their citizenry. Health literacy is an essential tool for the successful delivery and practice of medicine in the twenty-first century. As we move toward a participatory health-care approach, consumers, patients, and medical professionals will share the responsibilities for improvement in their health care and the promotion of healthy lifestyles. Medical and health professional societies and organizations must continue to address and advance health literacy among their constituents, policy-makers, and different interest groups by developing informational and educational materials to be accessible through social media.