INTRODUCTION
Modern-day widespread use of the internet has promoted the spread of misinformation regarding health; introducing a controlled AI platform where consumers can ask questions about healthcare and receive reliable information would do much to reduce these misconceptions. This paper aims to analyze the potential impact of controlled artificial intelligence in improving health literacy among various populations.
Health literacy refers to the extent to which an individual can access, learn, and use health-related information and services to make informed decisions about their health. There is a strong inverse relationship between health issues and education.
Several factors contribute to a person’s health, summed up by the term health context. An individual’s health context is a combination of social, cultural, and individual factors—media, health and education systems, culture, and society are some examples—that influence health-based decision-making. These decisions impact an individual’s health and medical costs, which can be used to quantify health literacy.
Artificial Intelligence is being introduced to a variety of different fields as its sophistication increases, healthcare being one of them. As AI is increasingly being incorporated into various aspects of the healthcare field, many questions are being raised. One of them is: how can artificial intelligence be utilized in healthcare education for the public?
CAN CONTROLLED AI IMPROVE HEALTH LITERACY?
As health literacy is a measure of understanding, it's fair to begin by asking—can AI, specifically controlled AI, impact health literacy? To explore this, let's first understand what Controlled AI is.
Most people are familiar with generative AI platforms, in which you input a prompt to a chatbot, and it generates an answer by scouring the internet and summarizing what it finds, or creating new information based on what it finds. This is an example of an uncontrolled AI platform, as the information it outputs is from an uncontrolled data source.
For information on a subject like health, uncontrolled AI platforms are a breeding ground for misinformation, as a user doesn’t know if the AI’s output is from a reliable and fact-checked source. Trying to find answers about healthcare from an uncontrolled AI platform can, in fact, harm an individual’s health literacy as a result of misinformation.
In contrast, controlled AI searches a closed, regulated bank of data for answers and outputs it to a user after human validation.
If a controlled AI platform contained a database with health information that was entirely reliable and fact-checked by physicians, a user could avoid potential incorrect information about health. Reliable health education is one of many potential ways to increase health literacy in an individual, but how are experts going about increasing health literacy right now?
Currently, there are several challenges when it comes to improving health literacy in any population. The most pressing issue is that as it is an emerging field of study and there is a lack of consensus when it comes to defining health literacy. Several factors concerning health literacy in an individual’s health context have yet to be studied.
For example, oral language skills are not assessed by national literacy assessments such as the National Adult Literacy Survey or the International Adult Literacy Survey. Still, they could significantly influence an individual’s health context.
Future research should focus on pinpointing which factors in an individual’s health context correlate with low health literacy; this information can be used to create effective targeted programs and educational policies to improve this issue. It could also help determine a demographic for a controlled AI platform and what kind of health information people are looking for within that demographic.
FINDINGS
AI is increasingly becoming part of various sectors of public health. AI computer applications can help physicians take notes during appointments, run through patient data to create personalized care plans, and streamline hospital paperwork.
A study in 2016 concluded that physicians spent 49.2% of their work day on desk work but only 27% of their day on actual face-to-face appointments. Physicians in this study who utilized an AI application to assist them with paperwork were able to optimize patient care by spending a higher percentage of their day in appointments with patients.
AI in healthcare is used primarily to improve clinical practice. Most of these examples revolve around the implications of AI in patient care. Still, from a patient education perspective, controlled AI backed by a reliable human source holds the potential to provide trustworthy answers to specific medical questions.
A digitized platform of this kind could provide readily available answers to patients who have questions about their treatment plans and may be unable to access a doctor for answers for various reasons, from language barriers to appointment availability.
THE ROLE AND TRUSTWORTHINESS OF AI AND DIGITAL APPLICATIONS IN HEALTH LITERACY
According to a 2024 study by KFF, 17% of adults use AI at least once a month for healthcare information, and this statistic increases to 25% in people under 30.
Utilizing AI as a source of information today is not uncommon, but is the information users receive trustworthy? 56% of adults do not think AI is a trustworthy source of health information.
This may be partly due to the popularity of uncontrolled AI platforms that simply collect information from the internet and output it to a user. Using the internet as a source is unreliable due to the abundance of online misinformation, and 35% of adults in this study indicated that they were “not too confident” at determining whether or not AI tells the truth.
However, if a platform could be developed utilizing controlled AI—which draws information from a closed bank of data where physicians fact-check all information—a user could be sure they are receiving reliable answers.
Another study by BMC Public Health measured the effectiveness of utilizing various mobile applications to educate students on different aspects of health. They found that utilizing a digital application that promoted positive mental health education decreased the presence of symptoms of anxiety and depression among the experimental groups.
Another internet-based application containing information about stress management methods from the same study was found to have significant outreach among students due to its digital nature, and there was an overall decrease in symptoms of stress and an increase in general well-being.
They found that students were more likely to seek health services online than in person. These digital applications benefitted the health outcomes of the individuals in the study, which, under the definition of health literacy previously proposed, indicates an increase in health literacy.
CONCLUSION
AI is increasingly becoming a part of various aspects of healthcare; despite some setbacks, it has great potential to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare information. Creating a digitally controlled AI platform that provides answers from a physician-fact-checked information bank would create a reliable platform for users to ask health-related questions.
Digitizing this information makes it more accessible, particularly to individuals with lower health literacy who may not have access to offline health education. Such a platform would reduce misinformation related to health online and improve public health literacy—particularly among groups that have been found to face barriers when accessing reliable healthcare information.
AI can also translate vital information into hundreds of languages, increasing accessibility. The accessibility of this reliable information would lead to more informed decision-making, ultimately improving health outcomes and costs; in other words, health literacy.
Integrating AI into healthcare education must be approached thoughtfully, focusing on accessibility, reliability, and patient empowerment to increase public health literacy.
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