Az egészségértés szintje a V4 országokban

V4 countries, consisting of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, face serious challenges regarding health literacy. Health literacy refers to the ability to obtain, understand, and use health information to make informed decisions. High levels of health literacy have a positive impact not only on one’s individual health but also on the whole country, as it can lead to reduced healthcare costs, a more effective and sustainable healthcare system, a higher standard of living, and greater well-being.

Research showed that health literacy levels are extremely low among V4 countries as a significant share of the population can be described as having inadequate or problematic health literacy skills. Furthermore, the situation is even worse among elderly citizens because the senior population scores lower on health literacy tests.

From the demographic point of view, the share of the senior population is increasing in V4 countries. There are several reasons contributing to this trend such as low birth rates present for example in Hungary, but also the phenomenon of longevity. People live to an older age and therefore, life expectancy is on increase. However, older citizens tend to suffer from various types of medical conditions. Together with low levels of health literacy among senior groups, this could pose a challenge for national healthcare systems as they might face an influx of chronically ill patients.

When it comes to digital health literacy, which means an ability to search for and assess health-related information from the Internet, the results are similar as the senior population was identified among groups with lower scores than the average population along with people with the lowest educational level or financially deprived citizens. As for the elderly, this can be caused by the fact that in V4 countries, they are on average less experienced in digital technologies than younger people. Yet, digital health technologies have become more frequently used in all V4 countries in the past ten years. Nowadays, telemedicine is present in all examined countries and its importance has even risen with the pandemics of COVID-19. In addition, each country strives to implement these digital health-related tools, ranging from electronic records of patients’ data in Hungary or potentially in Czechia or websites providing online information in Slovakia and Hungary, to safety electronic wristbands for seniors in Poland.

At the same time, all V4 countries pay attention to the problem of low health literacy and present tools to improve the situation. This is done by implementing national strategies and plans. They may vary in their priorities and scope; for instance, the Czech Republic present rather limited amount of complex national strategies, meanwhile Hungarian authorities sort out individual components of the healthcare system and create specific frameworks. Generally, they all aim at upgrading the overall health condition of the population. The national frameworks identify several ways how to achieve this goal, from strengthening preventive and screening programs or the public health system in general to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle. Certain countries also have specific strategies targeted at the elderly, such as National Active Aging Program for 2021 – 2030 in Slovakia or Policy towards the elderly until 2030 in Poland. In these countries, the promotion of active ageing, which is a basis for a sustainable society, is to be achieved by improving senior’s overall literacies and encouraging the elderlies to live a healthy lifestyle and be informed about the prevention. In addition, these programs advise to increase senior’s knowledge of ICT systems, either in form of overall digital competencies or applications. Also, the official recommendations call for legislation supporting further education for the elderly and its greater promotion to support active ageing among seniors.

To sum up, all V4 countries deal with the problem of low health literacy levels among their citizens. Despite the effort, surveys show that the senior population is still one of the most vulnerable groups both for low health literacy and digital health literacy. It means that there is indeed a space for taking further steps in this area as the share of elderly people will increase in the future.