| 英文摘要 |
The term “health literacy,” first introduced in the 1970s, has received increasing attention as the World Health Organization, American Medical Association and European Union have all made efforts to define and elaborate the term. To assess health literacy, the English versions of the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) and the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) have been in extensive use. The short-form and non-English versions of the two questionnaires have also been developed and used globally. The European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q) is another self-assessed questionnaire designed by the EU based on concepts slightly different from those adopted by the two aforementioned assessment tools. In clinical care, health literacy has been considered related closely to common health issues such as doctor-patient communication and the treatment and care of chronic diseases. In actual practice, in addition to promoting the public awareness of health literacy, medical institutions and public health departments should strive to make their healthcare facilities more literacy-friendly. Overall, discussions related to health literacy focus on its influence and action plans to be implemented in communities, medical facilities, educational institutions, and mass media. In response to the growing interest in health literacy, scholars and researchers in Taiwan have started in recent years to introduce health literacy assessment tools both through translation and self-development. Integrating the concepts of health literacy with the core principles of family medicine can be expected to facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of patients’ health-seeking behaviors and to better implement patient-centered care. |
