A new International Health Literacy Survey preliminary results shows that nearly one in three (28 percent ) people in Ireland have ‘limited’ health literacy and in particular struggle with finding and evaluating health information.
These ‘health literacy’ needs can have a huge effect on patients’ ability to prevent and manage illnesses, including cancer. Cancer patients with limited health literacy are less likely to attend appointments and are more likely to struggle with taking medicine correctly, be hospitalised and to die from their cancer.
Approximately four in 10 people experience severe distress with their cancer, and people with limited health literacy are more likely to suffer.
The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA ) and the Irish Cancer Society (ICS ) have produced a number of health literacy awareness videos to support cancer patients and their families.
MSD Ireland funded the videos. We developed these videos to give detailed information around a number of key areas, which affect patients’ lives on a daily basis. They are short and concise, providing a patient perspective and including helpful tips and advice.
The videos look at:
Getting the most from your health appointments: In this video Karen Dowling (Sheahan ), Cervical Cancer Survivor, shares her experience and advice of attending appointments.
“In the consultations the medical language can be very confusing and there’s a lot of acronyms used, and words that we just don’t understand. So for me, it was important to ask lots of questions.”
Getting test results: Here Siobhán Hayes, Endometrial Cancer Survivor, talks about how it can be difficult to fully understand what health test results mean for you and suggests:
“to actually bring somebody with you to the appointment because you are told so much in just such a short space of a few minutes and it’s really hard to take it all in.”
Getting health information and support between appointments: Tony Moloney, adult literacy learner, talks about the courage and confidence to go to your doctor and ask for information.
“The biggest thing I can say to anybody that has a problem is to visit your doctor, ask your doctor.”
“We were delighted to work with the Irish Cancer Society and MSD to develop these awareness videos. With recent research showing that 28% of the Irish population have ‘limited’ health literacy, the useful tips for cancer patients and their families in these videos will hopefully support them as they deal with cancer and health services,” Colleen Dube, Chief Executive Officer at NALA, commented.
“Our cancer nurses regularly get calls from people who feel they need more information or further clarity about their cancer, to talk through treatment options as well as other cancer related concerns they may have. Taking the time to answer their questions and providing them with information at a pace and in a format that suit their needs, can help them to make key decisions on treatments, how to manage side effects and symptoms or access services.
We hope the videos will further empower patients to feel more confident in understanding and managing their illness and help them to avoid the distress and physical problems that can come from health literacy needs,” Aileen McHale, Cancer Information Services Manager at the Irish Cancer Society, stated.
