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Understanding Health Literacy and its Impact on Delivering Care to Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract:Health literacy (HL) is the extent to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information that is needed to make appropriate health decisions. As adults with inflammatory bowel disease engage in complex health decisions throughout their lives, attention is needed regarding the influence of HL on the lives of people with inflammatory bowel disease. About one-third of adults in the United States have limited HL. Limited HL is a potentially modifiable risk factor that has been associated with barriers to patient–provider communication and worse health outcomes for people with a range of chronic diseases. Gastroenterologists must recognize the role of HL in their practice. Limited HL can affect a patient's ability to understand the purpose of a screening test for colorectal cancer, understand the concept of an asymptomatic yet chronic disease, ask questions in an office visit and engage in shared decision making. Gastroenterologists must approach each patient as potentially having limited HL and use clear communication strategies in all encounters. Currently, there is a lack of training, education, and support for health care providers to meet the needs of patients with limited HL. More research is needed in inflammatory bowel disease to understand the impact of limited health literacy on health outcomes in this population and develop effective systems-based interventions to reduce the health literacy burden on patients.