57% of Australians are incompetent?? A quick check of the ABS survey.

W.A. Today has just reported that according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics only 43% of Australians have sufficient health literacy to cope with the complex demands of life and work.

That's ranked from one to five, with one the lowest level and three classed as the minimum required to meet the complex demands of everyday life and work.

57% of Australians tested scored below 3. This is quite alarming in a day and age where doctors are supposed to be as open as they can with their patients in the name of informed consent.

So of course, I have to go have a squizz, at least at the summary. It turns out that they tested literacy in four domains: prose literacy, document literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills. They then:

As a by-product of the above domains, a fifth domain measuring health literacy was produced. Health literacy is defined as the knowledge and skills required to understand and use information relating to health issues such as drugs and alcohol, disease prevention and treatment, safety and accident prevention, first aid, emergencies, and staying healthy.

Ah, so hopefully, we are just assessing their capacity to understand the leaflets in the doctor's office and the warnings on the nice television rather than understand the doctor's words, because that would have been a worry.

The survey contained 191 daily tasks that were judged to measure health-related activities in five domains: health promotion (60 items), health protection (65 items), disease prevention (18 items), health-care and disease management (16 items), and navigation (32 items).

I don't know what disease navigation is, I don't think I want to. As someone who has dealt with a veritable onslaught of viruses and bacteria for the past few months, I can only guess that it means you know what is happening to you when it happens? and you can successfully steer yourself toward the paracetamol when required? Bleah.

Anyways, I checked cohorts, locales and took a quick look at some of their questions. I'm relieved to be able to report that the ABS was (fairly thoroughly) testing the ability of folks to stay healthy outside the doctor's office, and that anyone trying to use these results to undermine the idea of informed consent will have a difficult time doing so. Though if 57% of Australians are classed as less than health literate, we may need to rethink the public health messages beamed out to the Australian pubic on an almost nightly basis.