How to improve citizens' health literacy

First, strengthen doctors' understanding of health literacy. The reality is that doctors unconsciously use medical terms in communication with patients, which often prevents patients from clarifying problems. Patients are also unwilling to admit even if they don't understand the information transmitted by doctors because of lack of disease knowledge or shyness and embarrassment. Research shows that only 2% doctors evaluate whether patients understand their instructions, and most doctors often ignore this problem.

The second is to improve the enthusiasm of patients to participate in communication and decision-making. Patients are eager to get knowledge and diagnosis information related to their diseases directly from doctors, but in many cases, patients are embarrassed due to potential anxiety and fast-paced consultation, or their ability is limited, and they rarely seek help. Therefore, it is necessary to encourage patients to communicate with doctors, increase disease-related knowledge and build confidence.

Third, improve the communication skills between doctors and patients and improve the communication effect. The communication between doctors and patients should be patient-centered, take into account the information needs of patients, and let patients participate in the communication and be willing to communicate. In order to allow patients to have proper time to communicate with doctors, doctors should quickly evaluate patients' health literacy and try to find appropriate communication methods. Moreover, the doctor's language should be simple and popular, slow and concise. Advocate doctors to "teach back" or "show me" Let the patient repeat what the doctor told him. This way can make the patient feedback the information he has learned in time.