Blog 2

The Zarcadoolas et.al article proposes a health literacy model inclusive of four domains. Do you believe all four domains are of equal importance? Is there one that you think carries more weight in increasing the health literacy of an individual or population? Support your position with examples from the article and/or anecdotal professional/personal experience.

In the article,"Understanding health Literacy,"Zarcadoolas et.al introduce a model of health litercay which can be used to analyze issues associated with public health. Four different types of domains are identified in the process. The four domains are: fundamental literacy, science literacy,civic literacy and cultural literacy. Even though all four domains are of equal importance, I strongly believe that fundamental literacy plays an important role in increasing the public health literacy. According to the article, during the anthrax outbreak, a research was conducted showing that" individuals with less formal education were more likely to be worried about exposure to anthrax." A few years years when I used to work at a local pharmacy, a woman came in claiming that her son is terribly sick and is suffering some serious side effects. Surprisingly, I came to find out that when she picked up his prescription, she decided to give her son a lot more than the prescribed dose, thinking that the more medication he takes, the sooner he'll recover. This is clearly an uneducated way of thinking. Fear and worry can sometimes provoke someone to do things that are not in his or her best interest. Just like during the anthrax case, when people started taking cipro, not aknowledging the fact that their body can become resistant. I beliebe that ignorance and negligence are what prevented this woman from giving her son the right dose. I feel that many people are too busy or sometimes too naive to read basic numerical instructions. In order to increase health literacy, it is necessary to translate abstract medical terminolgy to a simple fundamental language that the average person can understand. By doing so, we can minimize and avoid confusion.