Group items tagged

Health literacy is basic reading and numerical skills that allow a person to function in the health care environment. Even though most adults read at an eighth-grade level, and 20 percent of the population reads at or below a fifth-grade level, most health care materials are written at a 10th-grade level. Older patients are particularly affected because their reading and comprehension abilities are influenced by their cognition and their vision and hearing status. Inadequate health literacy can result in difficulty accessing health care, following instructions from a physician, and taking medication properly. Patients with inadequate health literacy are more likely to be hospitalized than patients with adequate skills. Patients understand medical information better when spoken to slowly, simple words are used, and a restricted amount of information is presented. For optimal comprehension and compliance, patient education material should be written at a sixth-grade or lower reading level, preferably including pictures and illustrations. All patients prefer reading medical information written in clear and concise language. Physicians should be alert to this problem because most patients are unwilling to admit that they have literacy problems. (Am Fam Physician 2005;72:463-8. Copyright© 2005 American Academy of Family Physicians.)

This article discusses how the doctors and patients relationship is. It talks about how different patients have different literacy levels that the doctor should understand. many patients feel as though they are not able to understand what there doctors are trying to prevail to them.

This article is mentions the way in which doctors communicate to their patients about their health problems. So many patients do not have health literacy, which makes it very important for doctors to inform their patients properly.

This article discusses the importance of relaying information from doctors to patients. It states how important it is for the patients to actually understand the information they are being told. All people have different levels of literacy that doctors need to be made aware of.The article stressed the importance of doctors being clear and precise to there patients and not using 'doctor lingo'.

This article first discusses what health literacy is, and has some background information. It then discusses how many patients have very low literacy levels. It talks about how health literacy can change how a patient recovers or understands there treatments

This article discusses a study that was done to test the understanding of patients literacy of food labels. It was tested by a test known as, REALM, and given to adults. This test showed that doctors need to provide nutrition information to patients to improve there health before and after surgery.

We sought to determine whether literacy mediates the relationship between education and glycemic control among diabetes patients. Methods: We measured educational attainment, literacy using the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (s-TOFHLA), and glycemic control (HbA1c) in 395 diabetes patients at a U.S. public hospital. We performed path analysis to compare two competing models to explain glycemic control. The direct effects model estimated how education was related to HbA1c; the mediational model estimated the strength of the direct relationship when the additional pathway from education to literacy to HbA1c was added. Results: Both the model with a direct effect of education on HbA1c and the model with literacy as a mediator were supported by good fit to observed data. The mediational model, however, was a significant improvement, with the additional path from literacy to HbA1c reducing the discrepancy from observed data (p<0.01). After including this path, the direct relationship between education and HbA1c fell to a non-significant threshold. Conclusions: In a low-income population with diabetes, literacy mediated the relationship between education and glycemic control. This finding has important implications for both education and health policy. (Abstract taken from JSTOR.)

Many patients misunderstand the written questions American doctors have them answer before physical exams, a finding that calls into question the usefulness of these screening tools, new reports say.

Consideration for smoking marijuana for medical purposes in the U.S. Types of groups which pushed for the legalization of marijuana for all purposes. Cases reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning medical marijuana and legalization. There are benefits to the legalization of marijuana dealing with economic and social problems. Harvard has gave supporting evidence for marijuana and health issues. Marijuana is a proven pain reliever. Also it help cancer patients maintain appetites, this is another supporting reason for medical marijuana legalization.

The article reports on the new arrival the for use of medical marijuana, for things such as chronic pain and nausea. Like the other 10 states in the U.S. marijuana would only be available to patients through a doctor's prescription. States such as Alaska have dismissed the law but were the first state to legalize marijuana possession for persons over 21. This article is evidence that America is slowly reforming marijuana laws but very slowly. This shows that many states need to rethink medical marijuana policies. I can use this in my paper for support of states and their social take on legalization of medical marijuana.

This article is about the APA, which is the American Psychiatric Association. It talked about how doctors and other members meet in groups to discuss how learning needs to change to benefit others. They really stressed the importance of internet learning and how it would benefit doctors, students, and patients.

This article discusses the health information listed for different countries, this one focuses on Germany. It talks about how the websites are formed and how they are able to be accessed by others. It discusses the different objectives and methods that the website uses.