Innovating health education methods to improve patients' Health Literacy and reduce doctors' workload

Hsin-Wen Hung、Chia-Lee Tsai、Hom Chen、Albert Chiu、Weilun Chain、Ching-Yu Lin

 

Introduction:

Empirical studies have shown that an individual's health literacy is significantly associated with health status, disease risk, disability, and life expectancy. In addition, the media and the Internet are full of various health information. If the information cannot be judged correctly, many patients may have increased medical costs due to lack of health literacy, which will further lead to unequal health opportunities.

Hospitals in Taiwan, a doctor may treat more than a hundred patients during 4 hours of outpatient time. Patients waits for a long time, but the time to communicate with doctor is very short. If doctors want to say more information to patients, they often does not have enough time. After the outpatient, patients may not be able to remember everything doctor said, and it may not be easy for patients to share the received information with their family. In recent years, the use of videos, social media, and mobile devices has become very popular. This study tries to use these tools in doctors’ health education, and wants to know whether it is helpful to improve patients' health literacy and reduce doctors' workload.

 

Methods:

We worked with orthopedist and endocrinologists to select two health education topics that often need to be explained to patients: "Knee Arthritis: Causes, Symptoms, Preventions" and "Dietary Principles for Diabetes". After confirming the script of the video with the doctor, the video production team in the hospital will make the content provided to the patient into a simple, easy-to-understand and lively animated short video. We made six videos, each shorter than five minutes. After the doctor confirms the video, the QR code linked to the video and the satisfaction questionnaire will be printed and provided to the doctor. Doctors can provide appropriate health education videos for patients to watch repeatedly or share with their family members.

 

Results:

One month after the implementation in November 2022, we collected the questionnaire feedback from 299 patients and 9 doctors and nurses who used this health education method, the results have been very positive. The results of the patient's questionnaire showed that for "better understanding of this disease", "enhancing self-care ability", "helping to improve lifestyle", " video is easy to understand", " video layout is easy to read " and "The visual effect of the video is clear” , the percentages of very satisfied and satisfied are 98%, 98%, 98%, 99%, 97%, and 98% respectively. The average satisfaction rates of doctors and nurses for "helping me explain to patients more clearly", "reducing my workload", and "saving paper printing costs" were 89%, 100%, and 100%, respectively.

 

Conclusion:

This is an exciting First step. Next, we will continue to produce various types of health education short videos based on topics with high patient needs and high importance. We will also develop videos in different languages according to the characteristics of patients in the region. Looking forward to becoming a helper for patients and doctors, and improving the relationship between doctors and patients and the quality of medical services.

 

Keywords:

Health Literacy、health education、animated video