Economic Cost of Health Illiteracy for Blacktown Hospital Blacktown-Mt Druitt Health Medical Staff Council: Report 1

is the first report on the Economic Cost of Health Illiteracy for Blacktown Hospital. This document contains two sections: an introduction and a methods and analysis. Health literacy (HL) is defined as the skills, knowledge, motivation, and capacity of a person to access, understand, appraise and apply information to make effective decisions about health and health care and take appropriate action (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2014). Patients with a greater level of HL report better clinical and hospital outcomes. On the contrary, low level of HL, in other words, ‘health illiteracy’ is not only associated with significant health burden at individual and community level but also results in economic ramifications at practice and health care system levels. At health care system level, low HL is associated with increased economic burden. Evidence from the United States (US) estimated that the cost of low HL to US economy was between $106 billion to $238 billion annually, which is almost 7 to 17% of all personal care expenditures. At individual level, the cost of low HL ranged from $143 and $7798 per person per year, compared to individuals with adequate health literacy. Findings of the Health Literacy Survey indicated that only one in four Australians strongly agreed to have sufficient information to manage their health. In terms of self-management of conditions, only 18% of Australians strongly agreed to actively managing their health. However, compared to those without a chronic illness, only 12% of Australians with multiple chronic conditions reported adequate levels of self-management behaviours and only 17% reporting to actively engage with health care team. The overall hospital admission rates as well as admissions for specific chronic conditions were higher among Blacktown LGA compared to North Sydney LGA, NSW average, and Australian Capital Territory average, with exception of musculoskeletal conditions. The study will use different publicly available secondary data sets to calculate the economic costs of low health literacy. These data sets include Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census data of 2011 and 2016, ABS National Health Survey (NHS) 2017-18, New South Wales Population health survey 2019 and Public Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU) data, Independent Hospital Pricing Authority (IHPA) reports, the 45 and Up study data, the NSW Admitted Patient Data Collection (APDC) and NSW Emergency Department Data Collection (EDDC). Different perspectives will be considered while costing the impact of health illiteracy. These perspectives will be public healthcare provider, individual, employer and government. Costs will include the cost to health system, production economy, government, household and individual. Both total and average cost will be calculated. These costs will be adjusted for inflation.