Amen. Rewriting a patient handout for readability and clarity can
prevent so-called "patient errors" and even save lives.

Rewriting and testing with the target audience costs very little,
compared to the potential financial and other costs of such "errors."
Maybe we need more studies to prove it.

Janet Sorensen, Writer
Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care
-----Original Message-----
From: healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:healthliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Rima Rudd
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 3:00 PM
To: healthliteracy at nifl.gov
Subject: [HealthLiteracy 2548] Re: Wednesday Question: Lookingfor
CompellingHealth Literacy Facts

Hello... 
I will certainly think of my 'favorite' fact but I cannot resist
commenting on the one just posted.

It is not correct to state that people cannot do any of the tasks noted.
A more appropriate way to say this is "people below level X have
difficulty completing this task with accuracy and consistency" .

What is missing from this insight [and it is valuable measure and an
important insight] is the critical finding from over 800 published
studies that health materials are generally poorly written and designed.

so... this does lead to my favorite assertion taken from the IOM report:

Health literacy is a shared function of social and individual factors.
page 4 or Health literacy is a shared function of cultural, social, and
individual factors. Both the causes and the remedies for limited health
literacy rest with our cultural and social framework, the health and
education system that serve it, and the interactions between these
factors. page 32


in addition: 
The cost research is not firmly established nor uniformly accepted. It
is not possible, for example, to differentiate between costs due to
medical errors [errors made by professionals] and costs due to literacy
related errors [errors made by patients]. I am very disquieted by the
assumption that costs are due to patient error or to patient deficits. 

Rima

Rima E. Rudd, ScD, MSPH
Department of Society, Human Development & Health Harvard School of
Public Health
677 Huntington Avenue
Boston MA 02115
Phone: 617 432 1135
fax:     617 432 3123
web:    www.hsph.harvard.edu/healthliteracy
www.hsph.harvard.edu/sisterstogether
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