Email a friend    Print this page

Knowledge Point Articles   

November 2006

Study: Medical Instructions Stump Many

Most adults can determine the age their children should be vaccinated or discern when to take medication based on the label, but some adults still need help understanding many basic health instructions.

A new report issued by the National Center for Education Statistics found that most adults have an intermediate rating for health literacy. However, an intermediate rating is far from good. There are so many health instructions written in a way that is foreign to how people think and talk according to Dr. Rima Rudd from the Harvard School of Public Health.

“Intermediate skills means that a majority of U.S. adults will have some difficulty using health-related materials with accuracy and consistency,” Rudd said.

The series of tests had a total of 500 points in all for a perfect score. The women averaged 248 points, and the men averaged 242 points. The study showed that fewer than one in six people are proficient when it comes to health literacy.

According to Rudd, many health instructions are written at a level that is above the average consumer. She gave the simple example of buying a can of baked beans at the supermarket. A consumer may want to know the salt content before buying the product, but the word salt isn’t listed on the label.

“Of course, they wrote ‘sodium,’ but that’s a technical term, that’s a chemistry term,” Rudd said. “You don’t sit at the family table and say, ‘Pass the sodium please.’”

The government attempts to measure comprehension of basic medical instructions because low health literacy can lead to higher costs and poor health outcomes. If officials start to make it easier for patients to understand how to maintain their health then patients may decide to get more frequent screenings or checkups, and they might not have to resort to the emergency room for care.

The data analyzed in the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy allowed researchers to examine the relationship between demographic characteristics and literacy. Besides comparing gender, officials also reviewed the race, age, and the educational levels of the 19,000 people who took the test.

The analysis showed adults older than 65 had lower health literacy rates than the younger age groups.

Also, the Caucasian and Asian adults had higher health literacy rates than African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians. Hispanic adults had a lower average health literacy rate than the adults in any other ethnic group.

The study’s message conveys that health literacy skills are not at the level that they should be. The message for insurers, drug manufacturers, and doctors is that they must improve their communication skills if they want to help consumers understand information according to Rudd.

“They’re writing things at a level in the health field that is very difficult for the general public to work with,” Rudd said.

Reprinted from Permission
The Associated Press

Back to Knowledge Point Articles





Submit Knowledge Point Feedback