Just under 40 per cent of Irish people have problems understanding information relating to their health which they are given, according to the first ever European Health Literacy Survey.
The results of the study, carried out by researchers in UCD, show that over 17 per cent of people have difficulty understanding leaflets that accompany medicines while almost 20 per cent admitted that they would find it difficult to understand what to do in a medical emergency.
To be health literate a person must have the skills to understand basic health information whether they get it in writing, in person or over the phone. It also involves a person having the knowledge to understand their treatment options so they can make informed decisions about their own health.
Low levels of health literacy results in poorer health, poor quality of self-care and self management of disease, ineffective use of the health service and a decreased ability to advocate for oneself in the healthcare arena.
Vulnerable groups such as those experiencing long term illness, financial hardship and those from lower-socio-economic groups were seen to have the lowest levels of health literacy in a survey carried out by University College Dublin and jointly funded by the EU Commission and the Department of Health.
It marks the first time that health literacy levels have ever been measured in the Republic. While 39 per cent of people were be struggling to grasp health-related concepts, the problem across Europe is even worse and 46 per cent of those polled across eight European countries was shown to have low or problematic health literacy.
"One of the key findings of the study is that there is a strong relationship between health literacy and education, those with lower education have a lower level of health literacy. This has important implications for the development and integration of health matters in the school curricula from the earliest stages of education." According t Dr Gerardine Doyle who headed the study in the Republic.
