Impact of Poor Health Literacy on Aboriginal Women in Australia

Running head: HEALTH LITERACY
HEALTH LITERACY
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HEALTH LITERACY
Health literacy can be described as the degree to which the individuals are seen to have
the capacity of obtaining, processing and thereby developing an understanding about the basic
health information and the different services important for maintaining healthcare decisions. This
assignment will depict one of the most vulnerable cohorts in the nation of Australia and will
show how lack of health literacy had affected their health and the future of the coming
generations. It will also show how registered nurses might help in such situations.
Studies have shown that health literacy is dependent on a number of systemic as well as
individual factors (Batterham et al., 2016). These are the communication skills of the laypersons
as well as the professionals and the second factor is the lay and professional knowledge of the
health topics. The other factors are the culture, demands of the healthcare and the public
healthcare systems and the demands of the situations and the context. Studies have also
suggested that the health literacy can affect the ability of the individuals in navigating the
healthcare systems that include filling out complex forms as well as locating different providers
and services (Beauchamp et al., 2015). It also determines the ability of individuals in sharing
their personal information like that of the health history with the providers and engaging in
proper self-care and chronic disorder management. It also helps individuals in understanding
mathematical concepts like that of the probability as well as risks.
In addition to the different types of basic literacy skills, health literacy also requires
knowledge of the different healthcare topics. People who do not have proper heath literacy is
seen to lack knowledge about their health conditions and they are also seen to harbor
misinformation about their body and the nature and causes of the disorders. Without this
knowledge, the individuals can never understand the relationship between the healthcare lifestyle
factors like that of the physical exercise and diet with that of the various health outcomes

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HEALTH LITERACY
(Heijmans et al., 2015). Lower literacy skills are seen to be closely associated with poor health
outcomes, increased hospitalization rates, less fluency in the using of the preventing services,
more exhibitions of harmful behaviors and lower access to healthcare centers. Populations who
remain at the higher risk of having poor health literacy are the older populations as well as the
racial and ethnic minorities, people with less than high school degrees, people with low income
levels, non-native speakers of English as well as with people having compromised health status.
Researchers are of the opinion that statistics reveal education; language, access to resources;
cultures and age are all the factors which have the ability to affect the health literacy skills of
individuals residing in the nation (Corrigans et al., 2018).
The population, which is selected in this assignment, is Aboriginal women who are
mainly mothers. Report provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare had reported
that indigenous mothers are dying at rate which are twice than that of the death rates of the non-
native mothers. Statistical data has shown that the prevalence of the maternal mortality among
the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are exactly double in comparison to that of the
non native women. The maternal death ratio is 13.8 and even the 6.6 deaths per 100000 women
who are giving birth respectively (Diviani et al., 2015). Reports have also suggested that the
causes of the direct deaths in the mothers are mainly seen to include, thrombo-embolism,
obstetric hemorrhage and hypertensive issues that occur during pregnancy). Some indirect causes
of mortality are mainly seen to include cardiac diseases as well as poor mental health issues and
substance abuse. Most of the researchers are of the opinion that poor access to antenatal as well
as peri-natal services of such mothers in the nation is the main cause of the issues faced by the
mothers. While in no way, it is debatable about the development of maternity healthcare services
by the government in the remote native areas, it is indeed true that they are trying to bridge the