Ladies and gentlemen, the development of the coronavirus has not only exposed how ill-prepared governments were but also revealed how vulnerable our health care systems truly are. However, due to the duration of the pandemic, a unique opportunity has presented itself. One in which we can improve the current strategies being used to fight the pandemic. This may not only improve the present situation but will also make us more prepared for future pandemics. In my blog, I shall be hoping to outline the importance of health promotion and health literacy, as these are factors that I believe still need improvement in order to give societies the capability to effectively reduce the number of covid cases.

Health promotion can be defined as the sharing of legitimate information related to health, which enables people to increase control over and improve their health. It is for this reason that health promotion is an essential precaution that needs to be taken as it is important that individuals are equipped with the knowledge to take preventative measures to protect themselves and others. While doing my research, there seemed to be a consensus amongst scholarly figures that people with limited health literacy usually have a poorer health status. This is is because individuals who face challenges with reading and writing are much more likely to face challenges when extracting and deriving meaning from health information.

Before diving any further, I want to emphasize that health information, in general, can be a challenge for the majority of people to understand; not only people who face challenges with reading and writing. But that is to be expected because if your daily job is not related to the medical field it is very likely that you are not going to understand everything. What is extremely important to note however is that the factors contributing to the misunderstanding of health information may be especially perpetuated in individuals with low literacy. The consequences of this are devastating! This is especially the case when we take into account that a lack of health information may lead to an individual not taking the necessary measures to protect themselves.

The main point I’m trying to get across is that not all people are equally equipped with the necessary skills to understand the information being communicated. Think about it. Put yourself in a situation where you have issues with reading and writing. Would you be able to confidently state that you have concretely understood all the information being presented in relation to COVID-19? The answer is probably not!

Does this topic spark your interest?

In my next blog section, I shall be focusing on how illiteracy can prevent an individual from receiving adequate information that can be used to help them take preventative measures. This is important, as by outlining the main issues that make the process of digesting health information more challenging, new communication methods can be used to make health information more accessible to all sections of society.

Hope to see you there 🙂