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Help your patients become more health savvy
Physician Practice Advisor, May 4, 2004
Ninety million Americans-almost half of American adults-find health information difficult to understand. And patients with limited health literacy use more emergency room services and are hospitalized more than other patients, according to the report "Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion," from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released last month. The IOM reports that health illiteracy may result in billions of dollars lost every year.
"Health literacy is defined as the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic information and services needed to make appropriate decisions regarding their health," the IOM states. The IOM defines health literacy as a combination of the following cognitive abilities in adult patients:
* Reading and writing
* Listening and speaking
* Math skills and the ability to conceptualize medical information
The IOM report recommends that the healthcare industry combat the low literacy rates by creating health education curriculums for students from kindergarten through grade 12 and for community education programs aimed at adults.
Visit http://www4.nas.edu/news.nsf/6a3520dc2dbfc2ad85256ca8005c1381/a582ebfc554e736685256e70005e27d1?OpenDocument for more information.
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