Empowering Hispanic Adults in Northern Michigan by Assessing and Addressing Health Literacy

Abstract

The Hispanic Community in the United States is highly diverse in age, country of origin, and English competency. Despite this, on average, Hispanics in the United States exist farther outside the classic healthcare system and face particular challenges when attempting to obtain healthcare. These challenges are rooted in sociodemographic characteristics like immigration status, language, culture, occupation, economic status, and more. Because of these challenges, Hispanic individuals are more likely to exist farther outside the healthcare system and rely on self-medication and self-management of illnesses, chronic and acute. Because of this, this population is more reliant on health knowledge and health literacy regarding common illnesses, over the counter medications, and emergencies. Health literacy researchers, though, have failed to find adequate and appropriate measurements for health literacy for Hispanics in the United States. Based in the Hispanic health context in the United States and the immigrant experience, this thesis has the goal of developing a new way to assess and address health literacy based in Nutbeam’s theoretical understanding of health literacy and its relationship to empowerment. To assess health literacy, I developed a new assessment that was distributed to more than 75 Hispanic respondents living in a rural area of Northern Michigan. Participants were recruited via verbal communication, snowball sampling, or posters, and the assessment was administered in an electronic format. Demographic information, ratings of health efficacy in various contexts, and various clusters of knowledge were assessed. These questions provided insight into some of the most important gaps in health skills for this group: selecting medications and interpreting medication labels, communicating with physicians, and navigating the healthcare system. Knowledge of the U.S. healthcare system and understanding of medications and their uses was also limited for this group. These results allowed for the creation of a health literacy tool that directly addresses these needs. To do this, it provides individuals with tangible resources to improve their abilities to interact with the healthcare system, obtain healthcare information, and make health decisions. With the ultimate goal of empowerment, these resources hope to be a stepping stone in creating adequate Spanish educational materials in healthcare settings and a valuable resource for the health disenfranchised Hispanic population in Northern Michigan.