THE image persists in my mind the day a patient walked into the pharmacy, clutching a bag of medications with a look of confusion and concern. In his late 60s, he had recently been diagnosed with multimorbidity: diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and gout. As he handed me his prescriptions, he hesitated and quietly asked, “Can you explain these to me again? I didn’t quite understand what the doctor said”, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information given to him during his recent doctor’s visit.
This patient’s experience is not unique. Every day, someone is in this situation, lost in a sea of medical jargon, unclear instructions, and complicated treatment plans. This gap in understanding is not just frustrating; it is dangerous.
The growing inability of people to understand health information and effectively manage their care is a crisis that demands urgent attention and action. This is the state of low health literacy and poor self-care agency that affects hundreds of Jamaicans, leading to medication errors, unmanaged chronic diseases, and unnecessary hospital visits. Low health literacy and poor self-care agency are two silent epidemics.
This twin epidemic not only is undermining individual health but also straining our health-care systems, and together threatening the public health of our country. Understanding the twin epidemics Health literacy is the foundation of effective self-care. It involves the capacity to understand basic health informati.