Influence of Health Literacy and Cancer among Rural Patients in Rehabilitation

描述（由申请人提供）：健康素养已成为一个重要的结构，因为它的四个组成部分：文化和概念知识，听力和口语（口头识字），写作和阅读（印刷识字），以及算术影响个人的健康结果。由于个人不是生活在真空中，因此必须了解从个人到家庭、卫生保健系统和社区的多层次互动中健康素养的复杂互动。描述这些多个观点如何连接和相互影响的个人与癌症和其他慢性疾病，从农村阿巴拉契亚社区谁是在康复环境是本研究的重点探讨。目前的研究是制定一项旨在解决文献中这些复杂的相互作用和差距的研究计划的第一步。本研究的目的是透过深入访谈和焦点小组讨论，从个人、家庭、医疗机构和患者的农村家庭社区的角度探讨健康素养的影响。我们建议实现三个具体目标：1。描述该人群的健康素养水平。2.）的情况。确定在住院康复设施中发现的支持和障碍，以促进健康沟通和解决潜在的健康素养问题。3.）第三章解决卫生知识普及对从康复设施回到一个人的农村家庭社区的过渡的影响。这项描述性试点研究是我们最终目标的关键第一步，我们的最终目标是为这一人群制定和实证评估健康素养干预措施。随后的调查将包括审查目前在康复环境中的进程，以及这些进程如何积极或消极地支持卫生宣传，特别是在农村人口的卫生知识普及方面。长期目标是制定干预措施，减少障碍，加强对健康交流的支持，以减少不良健康结果，减少康复中的健康差距，并积极影响癌症和其他慢性病患者在不同环境之间的过渡。公共卫生相关性：健康素养低有可能对处于康复环境中的癌症和其他慢性病患者的健康和福祉产生负面影响。健康素养低会对癌症和其他慢性病的自我管理以及药物依从性等问题产生负面影响。如果患者来自农村社区，被移植到大城市住院康复机构，然后又被送回农村社区，这个问题可能会变得更加复杂。重要的是要了解低健康素养如何与个人在复杂的社会环境中相互作用，包括家庭，医疗保健环境和家庭社区，以减少这一人群中潜在的健康差距。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Health literacy has emerged as an important construct because it's four components: cultural and conceptual knowledge, listening and speaking (oral literacy), writing and reading (print literacy), and numeracy affect the health outcomes of individuals. As individuals don't live in a vacuum, it is important to understand the complex interaction of health literacy at multiple levels of interaction from the individual to the family, health care system and community. Describing how these multiple points of view connect and influence each other for individuals with cancer and other chronic illnesses, from rural Appalachian communities who are in a rehabilitation setting is the under explored focus of this study. The current study is the first step in developing a program of research designed to address these complex interactions and gaps in the literature. Through in-depth interviews and focus groups, the goal of the present study is to explore the influence of health literacy from the individual, family, health care facility and the patient's rural home community point of view. We propose to achieve three specific aims: 1.) Describe the health literacy level of this population. 2.) Determine the supports and barriers found in an inpatient rehabilitation facility in terms of facilitating health communication and addressing potential health literacy issues. 3.) Address the impact of health literacy on the transition from a rehabilitation facility back to a person's rural home community. This descriptive pilot study is a critical first step toward our ultimate goal of developing and empirically assessing health literacy interventions for this population. Later inquiries will include an examination of current processes in a rehabilitation setting and how they positively or negatively support health communication particularly in terms of health literacy in rural populations. The long-term goal is to develop interventions that will decrease the barriers and enhance the supports in health communication to decrease poor health outcomes, decrease health disparities in rehabilitation and positively influence transitions between settings for individuals with cancer and other chronic disease. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Low health literacy has the potential to negatively impact individuals with cancer and other chronic illness who are in a rehabilitation setting in terms of health and well-being. Low health literacy can negatively impact issues such as self-management of cancer and other chronic illness and medication adherence. This problem is possibly compounded if the individual is from a rural community, transplanted to a metropolitan inpatient rehabilitation setting and then sent back to their rural community. It is important to understand how low health literacy interacts with the individual in their complex social setting, including family, health care setting and home community with the goal of reducing potential health disparities among this population.