Health Literacy Frequently Asked Questions
Question: How many people have limited health literacy?
Answer:
According to the Institute of Medicine Report on health literacy, 90 million people have difficulty understanding and using health information. Certain groups have an especially high prevalence of limited literacy. They include people who completed fewer years of education, minorities, the poor, the elderly, and persons with lower cognitive ability. Other factors associated with limited literacy include living in the South or Northeast (rather than the West and Midwest), female gender, incarceration, and income status classified as poor or near poor.
Source: Literacy and Health Outcomes, AHRQ, 2004.
Rural Americans are one of the most at risk populations for limited health literacy because of the higher incidence of poverty and lower educational levels as compared to metro areas. Rural areas have higher instances of poverty than metro areas. Living in poverty tends to lead to higher instances of limited health literacy.
Question: What are the health effects of limited health literacy?
Answer:
Limited literacy is associated with several adverse health outcomes, including limited health knowledge, increased incidence of chronic illness, poorer intermediate disease markers, and lower use of preventive health services. Interventions to improve literacy have been studied, and some have shown promise for improving patient health and use of health care services.
The Institute of Medicine’s report reveals that persons with limited health literacy are hospitalized more often and use more emergency services. Hospital costs for such patients are $450 higher per admission than those for patients with adequate skills. Understanding health information is critical to the person’s accepting responsibility for his or her own health.
Source: Literacy and Health Outcomes, AHRQ, 2004.
Question: What are some tools to teach patient health literacy and create user-friendly education materials?
Answer: AMA Foundation: What Others are Doing is a web page designed to help you build your own health literacy efforts. Web site includes ideas and activities from other groups as well as links to useful information.
The following references provide assistance with assessing literacy and creating user-friendly education materials:
Health literacy is not just the responsibility of the consumer. Health literacy also hinges on the skills of those that provide health information, such as health care professionals and the media.
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Maintained by: Aubrey Madler,aubrey@raconline.org
Last revised 02/04/2009
