health
Low health literacy costs Colombia $9.4 trillion annually and increases pressure on the health system
Low health literacy costs $9.4 trillion annually in Colombia Photo: iStock
TL;DR
- Low health literacy costs Colombia $9.4 trillion annually, impacting healthcare spending and efficiency.
- Individual healthcare costs are 2.8 times higher for those with low health literacy.
- Globally, reducing low health literacy by 25% could save $303 billion annually across 40 countries.
- Structural factors like socioeconomic inequality and linguistic diversity amplify the problem in Latin America.
- Patients in Colombia's subsidized healthcare regime have significantly lower health literacy than those in the contributory regime.
- Experts call for a shared responsibility approach involving governments, healthcare systems, the private sector, and civil society.
- Improving health literacy can reduce avoidable service demand and pressure on hospitals.
- Addressing health literacy could reduce costs associated with anemia and air pollution-related deaths.
- Investments in health literacy reduce costs and improve health outcomes, contributing to system sustainability.