Health Literacy: A Long Journey to Brazilian Health Practices

Abstract

Studying health literacy was a turning point in my journey as a researcher and health professional. It happened during data collection for my master's degree in nursing. I asked a patient with chronic kidney disease, who had been in predialysis treatment for 10 years, why her kidneys had stopped working. Surprisingly, she replied with a question: Are my kidneys not working? At that moment, it seemed to me that all the work I had done up to then did not make sense. Then I began to wonder: How could that woman not know why she was in follow-up treatment in an outpatient clinic for chronic kidney disease? After all, we distribute folders with detailed guidelines on chronic kidney disease and offer advice about the disease and treatment during consultations.

Keywords

• health literacy
• chronic kidney disease