Poor health literacy among the public is becoming a major health challenge, the head of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) said on Monday, raising concerns that lifestyle diseases among the misinformed are contributing to health complications.

BAMP president Dr Lynda Williams told Barbados TODAY that Barbados’ health literacy, which is how well the population educates itself about health and the sources of its information, is a major problem.

“There’s a lot of scepticism and cynicism that has come post-COVID about health and the sources of information, and a lot of people take their health information from bad sources – YouTube, Google, whatever – and they do not know how to discern what is correct from what is incorrect. And if you take your health information from those sources, you are going to be led into false beliefs about health, including the need to take your medication and so forth.”