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Wear the Gown: How doctors try to improve health literacy

Patients can often misunderstand what doctors tell them, which is why improving health literacy is so important.

When people don't understand how to take care of their health, they tend to engage less with their doctor or even avoid going to the doctor altogether. Improving health literacy can change that in a big way.

On this day, Dr. Andres Pardo, a primary care physician and geriatrician with the Texas Diabetes Institute within University Health System, is seeing Linda Bullard. He makes sure that her daughter Becky is by her side at every appointment. Linda needs her there.

"It would be hard for her because she doesn't read or write,” Becky Bullard said. “She forgets what the doctor says the next day."

"She's taking a lot of effort to help. Sometimes people need help. That's what she's doing with her family members, trying to help, trying to get them through the health system, trying to assist them with instructions and get their medications," Dr. Pardo said.

They used to see another doctor but switched to Dr. Pardo.

"He takes the time in his busy schedule for the patients, but the other doctor did not do that,” Bullard said.

According to the Bexar County Health Collaborative, roughly nine out of every 10 people lack the skills needed to manage their health and prevent disease. That is just one statistic that shows that improving health literacy is important.

"It helps them to improve their health and helps them to improve their overall care,” Dr. Pardo said.

The CDC says that limited health limited health literacy costs the healthcare system money. It also increases morbidity and mortality. But it can be improved through communication with familiar concepts, words, numbers, and images that make sense, and also by testing the information first and getting feedback to make sure communication will be clear when it is released.

"It makes more sense to me because I've been doing it for quite a while," Bullard said.

"If it was the just them coming to the clinic, it would be hard to just follow through on the instructions and understand what medications they need to take,” Dr. Pardo added.

For more men's health information, call 210-358-3045. You can also find the rest of our Wear the Gown stories at WearTheGown.com.

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