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Elderly people with weaker literacy skills have shorter lives: study |
July 23, 2007 Older people who can't read have a greater chance of dying, including from cardiovascular disease, a U.S. study released Monday suggests. The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, investigated 3,260 U.S. patients over 65 who were on medicare. It indicates that older adults with low literacy levels had a 50 per cent higher mortality rate compared to seniors with better literacy skills. "The excess number of deaths among people with low literacy was huge. The magnitude of this shocked us," lead author Dr. David Baker, who worked on study with his colleagues from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a news release. Cardiovascular disease was cited in the study as the most common cause of death among those with "inadequate health literacy." The study showed that low health literacy was the top predictor of mortality after smoking, also surpassing income and years of education. Northwestern began the study in 1997, with study participants from Cleveland, Tampa, Miami and San Antonio. At the time, participants were asked a variety of personal questions on many areas, such as medical background, education and health behaviours. They were also asked to complete a literacy test where they had to read a variety of health-related materials, such as pill bottles, that required understanding numbers.
From: www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/07/23/elderlyliteracystudy.html
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Measure keeps it simple: No more jargon |
May 18, 2007 Now hear this, Oregonians: Your state government has banned gobbledygook.
From: www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007705180335
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Lending lingo |
May 16, 2007 It’s all over the news. The mortgage industry is a mess and too many of our neighbors are going into foreclosure. ABC2 News Investigator Tisha Thompson realized most folks don’t really understand what the heck everyone is talking about…literally. After 34 years in the same house, Bill Jones is getting ready to move… “It’s a lot of memories,” he says. “A lot of memories.” Against his will. “Exactly when we got to go, I don’t know.” After a two year legal battle, Jones is about to go into foreclosure. "What should have been an ordinary business transaction has turned into a nightmare.” Jones says it all started when he tried to refinance his mortgage two years ago. “They promised me a 30 year conventional loan at a fixed rate,” he says. But he ended up with an adjustable rate mortgage with an exploding interest rate. “I’ll be paying about twice what I was promised.” Jones says he only figured this out after he deciphered all the words in his loan agreement…after he signed the documents. We got hold of a basic contract for a traditional 30 year mortgage. Its one of the simplest contracts out there. But read a typical clause: “'Lender may, at lender's option, without giving notice to or obtaining the consent of borrower, borrower's successors or assigns of or any junior lien holder or guarantors...” After reading it three or four times, we still don't know what it means. So we brought it to the experts: Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation Secretary Thomas Perez, the man in charge of Maryland’s mortgage laws… And Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) who says, "I call this lawyer talk." Both are powerful lawyers and both men had to stew over the document before they could explain it us. "Basically what this saying is that the lender can extend the time you can you will have to make a payment,” Cummings says. “I would know that only because I'm a lawyer. The average person wouldn't have a clue." Both agreed we become easy targets because most of us don’t know what the words in our loan agreements mean. "That is not fair and that is not legal,” Perez says. He believes the complicated language is the main reason why our ABC2 News Investigation found Maryland Latinos were three times more likely to end up with a high-risk loan than their white, non-Hispanic neighbors. "I don't think I have limited English proficiency and I had a heck of a lot of trouble interpreting this,” Perez says. “I've met way too many people who did have limited English proficiency and it was precisely that language barrier that allowed them to be taken advantage of." But Perez admits he can’t make lenders use plain English in their documents. "At the moment I can't force the lender to do this." He and Cummings are still encouraging lenders to use simple English in their contracts. "We need to simplify these documents as best we can," Cummings says. But Bill Jones says it’s already too late for his Pimlico neighbors. "People have had to move after 30, 40, 50 years because they took out loans they didn't understand. I think it should be made simple where people can understand it. We're not trained mortgage bankers, finance agents, were just normal folk."
Full Story: www.abc2news.com/content/investigators/story.aspx?content_id=adbe76eb-becd-4cd3-8334-03ef47866aef
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'Reform in Law' awarded for first plain-language rewrite of federal civil court rules in 70 years |
May 10, 2007 The Burton Awards (www.burtonawards.com) has named the project to
clarify the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, used in federal trial
courts, as the winner of its 2007 "Reform in Law" award. The awards
program is run in association with the Library of Congress and the Law
Library of Congress, and the ceremony will be held at the Library of
Congress, in Washington, D.C., on June 4, 2007.
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