Page 229 - THE DUTCH TALKING TOUCH SCREEN QUESTIONNAIRE

THE DUTCH TALKING TOUCH SCREEN QUESTIONNAIRE
Supporting patients with diverse levels of health literacy in taking an active role during the diagnostic phase of physical therapy treatment
SUMMARY
Chapter 1 describes the introduction of this thesis. Over the last decades, the traditional paternalistic approach in health care is increasingly developing towards a patient-centered care (PCC) approach. Patients are expected to take on an active participating role. However, not all patients are able to take advantage of the positive effects of PCC. PCC demands of patients participation as an active partner, and information exchange is key to active patient participation. Inadequate health literacy (HL) is an important limiting factor in the ability of patients to take on an active role and exchange information with their health care provider effectively. Within the Dutch population, thirty-six percent have inadequate health literacy. According to the conceptual model of Paasche-Orlow and Wolf, inadequate health literacy causing problems in provider-patient interactions is one of the pathways through which health outcomes are influenced negatively. Health literacy itself is, amongst other factors, influenced by ethnic background, socio-economic factors, language proficiency and age. Finding a way to support patients with low HL to provide accurate and relevant information in a way that is comprehensible to their health care provider will improve provider-patient interaction. According to the conceptual model of Paasche-Orlow and Wolf, this will have a positive effect on health outcomes. A provenly effective approach to improvement of provider-patient interaction and health outcomes is the use of health-related questionnaires. Using traditional paper- based questionnaires is not likely to contribute positively to the situation of patients with low HL though, because low HL is strongly associated with low literacy. Therefore, one can assume that in patient populations with low health literacy the use of questionnaires will not contribute to provider-patient interaction and could even complicate the situation further. However, earlier research has shown that the use of a Talking Touchscreen (TT) increases the ability of low literacy patients to complete health-related questionnaires, even if they have limited or no computer skills. In order to avoid increasing health inequality between native and minority groups, researchers in earlier
Summary
223
S