Visiting a doctor usually entails receiving a menu of medications without really learning much about the prevention of disease. The patient may come away with some advice on diet and supplementary medicines as well, but little else.
This is the point where we need health education. Currently, more attention is given to the cure and less on preventing disease. It seems we haven’t learned that prevention is better (and usually cheaper) than cure and that is why for example tuberculosis is still rampant in some parts of the world.
Time constraints and heavy patient loads are the two main reasons health education is usually neglected. Furthermore, there is a general assumption among doctors that since the patient can’t really understand the disease process, learning a little about disease would only increase patients’ anxiety. Patients though have many queries. They do not ask because of the fear that the health personnel would take offense and not prescribe proper medication for them.
This is a very common problem in small clinics as well as in hospitals and little attention is given to solving it. Disease is caused not just by infection or injuries, but a whole set of behavior, attitude and lifestyle practices.
According to WHO expert committee, “the aim of health education is to help the people achieve health by their own efforts and actions.” It is a process through which people learn to improve their individual health, attitude and knowledge and work together with health professionals. This change will not come until and unless the health professionals convey the knowledge to the people who will then apply it and learn to take control over their health.
Health care professionals should realize that heath education is not just about dosage. It involves informing them about the disease process, the effects of the medication and how it will help. It is a misconception that informing the patient would increase their anxiety. If a patient knows about his/her health problems exactly, they will be in a position to take care of them.
A very common example is of a person who is diabetic. He is just informed that he needs to take certain drugs regularly and that’s all. As the disease progresses and the patient remains uninformed, he/she does not follow the prescribed course of treatment. They assume that the drugs will neutralize any amount of sugar they eat. Some patients change their dosage by themselves according to their sugar intake. The number of patients admitted to the hospital suffering from the diabetic related complications is an ample evidence of lack of health education.
Another example is the use of antibiotics. Patients are not told about the how antibiotics work and as a result they take them without any thought of their side effects. As a result, a patient may end up with multiple drug resistance bacteria and microbes.
Doctors unjustly assume that since the patient is illiterate or doesn’t have medical background, he will not understand anything about his condition. Sometimes patients are just informed that they have excess sugar in their body or their liver is not working. This is just not enough. If the patients do not realize the intensity of their problem, they may end up with severe complications or disability.
The ultimate responsibility lies with the health care professionals. They should educate the patients about their health problem and its intensity. They should discuss with the patient the prognosis of the disease, the effect of drugs and its susceptibility to control in detail. Moreover, the patient should also be informed about the side-effects of the drugs, complication and recurrence of diseases.