Patient health literacy is “worse than expected”
Unsuprisingly, patient health literacy is “worse than expected” (which I guess means that it is surprising; but somehow it didn’t surprise me).
New research from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine has found that nearly 50 percent of patients taking antihypertensive drugs in three community health centers were unable to accurately name a single one of their medications listed in their medical chart. That number climbed to 65 percent for patients with low health literacy.
It was worse than we expected, said lead author Stephen Persell, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine, and of the Institute for Healthcare Studies at the Feinberg School, and a physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
“It means doctors can’t ask patients to tell them the medications they are taking for their chronic conditions like hypertension. It’s very hard to get at the truth of what medications the patient is actually taking.”
The study will be published in the November issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Patients can’t recall their medications to tell doctors [Via Eurekalert]
From Medical Economics magazine, more on patient relations ...
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Yes, it is true. Many Americans do not take their medications for one simple reason: they don’t understand what the medication label says or are unable to follow the label’s instructions.
In fact, some 90 million Americans – roughly half the adult population – do not understand what the health care industry is trying to tell them. Otherwise known as “low health literacy,” this growing public health issue not only increases the cost of care, but adversely impacts patient care; when patients do not understand their health care, they will not receive the care they need.
This problem includes printed information the health care industry creates — medication inserts and prescription labels, patient brochures and instructions sheets, informed consent forms, and web sites, among other information that reaches the nation’s health consumers on a daily basis.
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Aracely Rosales, Chief Content Expert
Health Literacy Innovations