EDUCATION AS AN ESSENTIAL FRAMEWORK TO INCREASE THE HEALTH LITERACY OF THE ELDERLY

Sofia Veiga¹*, Carla Serrão², Ruth Sampaio^3
1PhD in Psychology, Adjunct Professor, School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, PORTUGAL, sofiaveiga@ese.ipp.pt
²PhD in Psychology, Adjunct Professor, School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, PORTUGAL, carlaserrao@ese.ipp.pt
³Master in Psychology, Adjunct Professor, School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, PORTUGAL, ruthsampaio@ese.ipp.pt
*Corresponding Author

Abstract

Recent studies in Portugal and in various parts of the world (eg., Husson, Mols, Fransen, Poll-Franse, & Ezendam, 2015; Liu, Liu, Li, & Chen, 2015; Manafo, & Wong, 2012; Reisi, Javadzade, Heydarabadi, Mostafavi, Tavassoli, & Sharifirad, 2014; Sudore et al., 2006; Toçi, Burazeri, Sorensen, Jerliu, Ramadani, Roshi, & Brand, 2013) have revealed a low level of health literacy among the elderly. In the current generation, the elderly has difficulty to access, understand and use health information in order to choose healthy lifestyles, as well as to prevent or manage, when there is already, the disease.

An inadequate level of health literacy can have significant implications on the quality of health of the elderly, on the use of health services and professionals, and consequently on health expenditures.

In Portugal, in particular, studies carried out by Serrão and collaborators (eg. Serrão et al., 2014; Serrão, Veiga & Vieira, 2015) in this area have revealed that this is a worrying reality. After assessing the level of Health Literacy, the elderly was listen as well as a set of professionals in the field of health and psychosocial intervention. The triangulation of the results obtained highlights the need to invest in the education of these people, but especially of the coming generations, so that the level of health literacy can increase and the quality of life of people and health services improve. In this process it is equally important to train health professionals to be more sensitive to the needs of the elderly, seeking to involve them and make them responsible for their care and health status. Moving from a paternalistic model to a deliberative one is essential for elderly become gradually more autonomous and empowered, with significant consequences for their quality of life.

Keywords: Health Literacy, Elderly, Education, Empowerment.