Guidelines: Health Literacy & Immigration c/o National Academy of Sciences

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

Building the Case for Health Literacy

The Financial Case "The health literacy field has a long history of forecasting the potential cost savings of addressing health literacy from a societal standpoint. An early systematic review reported a range of an additional 3–5 percent in total health costs attributable to limited health literacy for the health care system and a range of $143–$7,798 of additional expenditures for individual patients with low/limited health literacy compared to those with adequate health literacy (Eichler et al., 2009)." p.106.

"Immigration can thus be both a consequence of social determinants and a social determinant in its own right, said Castañeda. Understanding this relationship may require going beyond the hold of individualism and behaviorism in scientific studies and interventions and instead tackling a wider sphere of upstream structural factors that affect health, including living and working conditions; income inequalities and poverty; access to care; immigration policies and enforcement practices; and gender, race, and ethnic hierarchies. This approach draws insights from political economy, critical race theory, structural violence, structural vulnerability, and intersectionality, but it tries to avoid strict delineations of variables upon operationalization. “The more we fix and make permanent the specific factors in our definitions, the more likely we are to lose the big picture and the radical reframing that needs to be done,” she explained." p.21. "Uchendu recalled the “double battle” that some groups have to undertake because they are immigrants while also dealing with another issue. “In health equity, we talk about the intersection of vulnerabilities,” she explained. For example, immigrants can have mental health disabilities or be dealing with other issues. “Again, it comes back to that connection about the holistic individual,” she noted." p.40.

Immigration as a Social Determinant of Health

National Academy of Sciences

Building the Case for Health Literacy: Proceedings of a Workshop

Immigration as a Social Determinant of Health: Proceedings of a Workshop