The Strongest Predictor of an Individual’s Health Status

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I just enrolled in the NNLM class A Librarian’s Guide to Consumer Health. To start, there is a quiz that asks:

Which is the strongest predictor of an individual’s health status?

  • Age
  • Income
  • Employment Status
  • Education
  • Health Literacy Skills
  • Racial/ethnic group

The correct answer, which I didn’t get, is Health Literacy Skills. I ran a quick search, hoping to learn more about this, and found Health Literacy and Patient Safety: Help Patients Understand. Manual for Clinicians. Here is a quote from it:  

The limited ability to read and understand health-related information often translates into poor health outcomes. Most clinicians are surprised to learn that literacy is one of the strongest predictors of health status. In fact, all of the studies that investigated the issue report that literacy is a stronger predictor of an individual’s health status than income, employment status, education level, and racial or ethnic group.

The manual cites the following resources:

  1. Baker DW, Parker RM, Williams MV, Clark WS, Nurss J. The relationship of patient reading ability to self-reported health and use of health services. Am J Public Health. 1997 Jun;87(6):1027-30. doi: 10.2105/ajph.87.6.1027
  2. Sudore RL, Yaffe K, Satterfield S, Harris TB, Mehta KM, Simonsick EM, Newman AB, Rosano C, Rooks R, Rubin SM, Ayonayon HN, Schillinger D. Limited literacy and mortality in the elderly: the health, aging, and body composition study. J Gen Intern Med. 2006 Aug;21(8):806-12. doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00539.x
  3. Weiss BD, Hart G, McGee DL, D’Estelle S. Health status of illiterate adults: relation between literacy and health status among persons with low literacy skills. J Am Board Fam Pract. 1992 May-Jun;5(3):257-64.

More about the topic, including other resources, can be found on the CDC website: Understanding Health Literacy.

Categories: General

3 thoughts on “The Strongest Predictor of an Individual’s Health Status”

  1. @javier

    Somewhat tracks. I’m helping my mom navigate cancer treatments. I’ve asked a few key questions that I think really made a difference.

    After surgery took out way more lymph nodes than expected I asked about lymphedema. Dr immediately got mom into PT and a sleeve which I think had kept her from losing mobility.

    1. @javier

      Later when radiation was extended I asked whether there was any reason to delay the start of endocrine therapy. Dr realized that one therapy could and should be overlapped with radiation due to the long time between chemo and endocrine therapy if they waited until radiation was over.

      Endocrine and chemo both target potential metastasic cells else where in the body. A long lapse could allow a metastatic cell to grow and get more cancery.

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