Health Literacy and Health Disparities Essay

Using the concepts of health literacy and health disparities, you will develop a 2-3 page (not including title and reference page) APA style paper using the following criteria:

HEALTHY PEOPLE TOPIC: Alzheimer\'s and Dementia DIA-1 Increase the proportion of adults aged 65 years and older with diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, or their caregiver, who are aware of the diagnosis 

    A title page in APA format including a running head, title, your name, institution and date.
    An introductory paragraph describing the topic and issue to include a thesis statement at the end.
    Describe how does health disparities affect your chosen HP2020 topic and objective.
    Discuss three nursing and interdisciplinary health care strategies to minimize the impact of the disparities you identified in criteria three.
    Determine three education strategies as a patient educator that will improve your patient’s health literacy.  These strategies can be utilized to effectively communicate to patients and families to enhance comprehension of information received.
    A closing paragraph that summarizes your paper.
    A reference page formatted in APA.  Ensure to use at least two scholarly sources dated within the past five years.  You must use the course textbook and the HP2020 website.

Health Literacy and Health Disparities. 

Healthy People Topic: Alzheimer’s and Dementia

More than 59.7% of the old adults with 65 years and above diagnosed with other types of dementias as well as Alzheimer’s disease are aware of the diagnosis. The caregivers taking care of the patients 65 years and above are also aware of the diagnosis of dementia and the Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore, the patients are less likely to receive any treatment or information to manage their condition (Lock et al, 2020). However, more than 65.1% are not aware of their conditions until the condition gets chronic and hard to manage. Increasing the number of patients with dementia and creating awareness to them will prompt to early treatment as well as lower the cost of medication.Health Literacy and Health Disparities Essay

Health Disparities affecting Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia

Alzheimer’s disease and dementia largely affect the African American and Hispanics with about 5.8 million suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and more than 5.6 million 65 years and above suffering from dementia. The cases in African Americans are expected to increase four times more than the current estimates while Hispanic cases will increase over seven times. Diabetes and heart diseases account for the high cases in African Americans and Hispanics since they are more common in these populations (Finney Rutten et al, 2020).Additionally, greater adversity, higher poverty rates, low level of education as well as discrimination increase the susceptibility to dementia andAlzheimer’s disease. Women of all races are also predisposed to Alzheimer’s and dementia two times more compared to men since they primarily live longer. Health Literacy and Health Disparities Essay

Nursing and Interdisciplinary Healthcare Strategies that will help in minimizing the Disparities for Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia

Nurses have a moral and professional responsibility of taking care of all the patients by leveraging their spheres. In addition, nurses are required to lead, act and acknowledge to eliminate health disparities and achieve health equity. Understandingthe disparities related dementias and Alzheimer’sdisease is the first step towards minimizing the disparities for the diseases(Lock et al, 2020).  In addition, the nurses should advise older adults especially Hispanic, women, African Americans with symptoms of memory loss to undergoan early assessment. Early assessment by healthcare professionals will bring out a timely care for the vulnerable patients. Additionally, early assessment will help the healthcare professionals to ascertain the cause of memory loss like vitamin deficiencies, stress or medication side effects.

Education Strategies to Be Taken by a Patient Educator to Improve Patient’s Health Literacy

            Health literacy is the degree to which populations and individuals have the capacity to process, communicate, understand as well as obtain the basic health information required to make healthy decisions. For example, a patient suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia should have the health literacy about the signs and symptoms of the disease, prevention and management of the disease (Finney Rutten et al, 2020). While knowing when to seek medical care, living a healthy lifestyle and taking preventive measures are individual responsibilities accessing the right information is the key to health literacy.Health Literacy and Health Disparities Essay

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            Therefore, a patient educator should ensure they provide the patients with health literacy skills by providing them with actionable, clear and accessible information. Additionally, patienteducators should recommend and use technology to improve the patients’ health literacy. Making use of the available technologies like mobile applications, patient portals and telemedicine will ultimately improve health literacy (Finney Rutten et al, 2020). Secondly, using effective teaching method will make the communication between the patients and the patient educator easier thus helping the patients to have a clear understanding of health information. Eventually, the patient educators should adopt the use of visual aids like images, videos, information graphics and simple illustrations to help the patients to have better understanding of the health information.

Conclusion

            Increasing the number of patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease as well as creating awareness to them will prompt to early treatment as well as lower the cost of medication. Women, Africans Americansand Hispanics are most vulnerable group to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Early assessment will help the healthcare professionals to ascertain the cause of memory loss like vitamin deficiencies, stress or medication side effects thus reducing the cases of Alzheimer’sdisease and dementia. In addition, Patients who assess the right health information have high health literacy level. Health Literacy and Health Disparities Essay

References

Finney Rutten, L. J., Blake, K. D., Matthews, M. R., Hesse, B. W., & Moser, R. P. (2020).           Patient Reports of Involvement in Health Care Decisions: Falling Short of Healthy      People 2020 Objectives. Journal of Health Communication, 25(6), 484-489.

Lock, S. L., Baumgart, M., Whiting, C. G., McGuire, L. C., Iskander, J. K., Thorpe, P., & Laird, S. (2017). Healthy aging: promoting well-being in older adults. Health Literacy and Health Disparities Essay