Health literacy study uncovers surprises

Doctor's appointments, insurance forms, personal identification. For some students, making and remembering health care appointments seems like second nature; however, others struggle to navigate the maze of the American health care system. According to Dr. Cat McGrew, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, health literacy is the concept that you should be able to read, understand, and act upon information relating to personal health care. "At a time when you're diagnosed with a condition that's new to you, most of us aren't ready at that point to know what to ask, or how to ask," McGrew said. "Awareness toward health literacy lets us know we can't presume a person who is a patient knows what's going on." In order to understand this break-down in communication, students from McGrew's Seminar in Health Communications (COM 407) completed research at Western and assessed students' obstacles to self-efficacy in managing personal health care. They interviewed two panels of students, one comprised of Japanese and Chinese students from International Student Services and the other made of students from Multicultural Students Services. For senior Megan Cullerton, the most important take-away from the panels was "learning the differences between the health systems that they came from and were used to" and those in the United States. Health literacy not only covers basic literacy for people who are unable to understand complex medication information, but also education for those who need help understanding the system. "There are times when there are barriers to understanding or accessing the system," McGrew said. "Like when it comes to insurance. You don't know what it means to try to get an appointment, don't know when you should see the doctor, don't know how to advocate for your own care." However, "health literacy is not just for people who can't read," she added. "Becoming more familiar with [the system] lets us know that communication is the key." Students brainstormed ways to bridge that communication gap, especially as it affects students at Western. Referring to her research, Cullerton said, "We focused on the issues, talking with the health center about everything students would need to make an appointment, to remember an appointment, such as personal IDs and their addresses." Potential tools included refrigerator magnets that could be passed out by RAs and would help women coming in from first generation families become aware of all the resources at the health center. Another idea is oversized magnetic memo pads that would cover the basics of scheduling a routine doctor's appointment. Another project included a poster laid out in English and translated into Japanese and Korean versions, an idea that could translate into an image on the health center's Web site. Although the projects conceived of in class provided hypothetical solutions, McGrew said, "Given ideas that were raised and concerns identified, down the road, we would like to work with the health center and through communication, make this information more accessible." Senior Heather Shields said in subsequent trips to the doctor she has started recognizing problems with the wording in medical offices and "seeing how they use language that not everybody would understand. Before I wouldn't have [noticed], and it's interesting to me that they don't use more common language so that we all can understand what health care we're getting." In addition, senior Jonathan Valder said patients will not receive necessary information "without asking questions and having the knowledge to know that you can ask the doctor questions." "It's a very small place where they're intervening, but it's a place that has potential for significant change," McGrew said. "Small steps are the things that are barriers for students that aren't familiar with the system here."