Health literacy is an important construct in health care that affects patient outcomes and overall health. The impact of limited health literacy in cancer care is wide, and it can affect patients' ability to make treatment decisions, follow directions on a prescription label, or adhere to neutropenic precautions. This article describes strategies and tools for nurses to use when developing writ...

PURPOSE To evaluate whether lower literacy is associated with poorer knowledge and more negative attitudes and beliefs toward colorectal cancer screening among veterans without recent colorectal cancer screening. PATIENTS AND METHODS Three hundred seventy-seven male veterans, age 50 years and older, who had not undergone recent colorectal cancer screening, were surveyed about their knowledge,...

1 Szu-chia Lo, National Cheng-Kung University, University Library, Tainan 701, TAIWAN, R.O.C [email protected] Abstract  This paper describes the results of the study of undergraduates’ information literacy and skills. The purpose of this study is to determine their strengths and weaknesses in terms of their information literacy and skills by observing the information search behavior. The ...

OBJECTIVE To explore the self-reported techniques used by health care professionals to enhance communication with patients with low health literacy. METHODS A survey was administered to physicians (n=99), nurses (n=87), and pharmacists (n=121) attending continuing education programs on patient safety and health care quality. Each was asked to rate communication-enhancing strategies by frequen...

Adult illiteracy rates are alarmingly high worldwide. The portability, affordability, and ease of use of mobile (or handheld) devices offer a realistic opportunity to provide novel, context-sensitive literacy resources to adults with limited literacy skills. To this end, we developed the concept of ALEX – a mobile Adult Literacy support application for EXperiential learning (Lumsden et al., 200...

I nadequate health literacy is a major problem in the United States. Patients’ health literacy skills affect their ability to communicate with health care providers, adhere to health care regimens, access and navigate health care services, and manage health issues. Yet the Institute of Medicine estimated in 2004 that nearly half of all American adults (about 90 million people) have difficulty u...

BACKGROUND Limited health literacy is associated with worse physical function in cross-sectional studies. We aimed to determine if health literacy is a risk factor for decline in physical function among older adults. METHODS A longitudinal cohort of 529 community-dwelling American adults aged 55-74 years were recruited from an academic general internal medicine clinic and federally qualified ...

BACKGROUND There is a lack of research examining patient-perceived empathy and its effect on low-literacy patients' understanding of health information. This study investigated the moderating effect of patient-perceived empathy on the relationship between health literacy and understanding of preoperative information. METHODS During a 2-month period, a total of 144 patients took a survey that ...