An estimated 77 million U.S. adults have trouble understanding basic health information, which impairs their ability to follow doctors' orders, researchers say. Senior author Dr. Dean Schillinger of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues at the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, said millions more simply lack the skills necessary to make clear, informed decisions about their own healthcare. "Depending on how you define it, nearly half the U.S. population has poor health literacy skills," Schillinger said in a statement. "Over the last two decades, we have focused on what patients can do to improve their health literacy. In this report, we look at the other side of the health literacy coin, and focus on what healthcare systems can do." Organizations that promote proper health literacy tend to make improving health literacy a priority at every level of the organization, measure health literacy, take into account the needs of their patients and avoid stigmatizing people who lack health literacy. Those organizations also tend to provide easy access to health information, distributing easy-to-understand information, take health literacy into account when discussing medicines and train the healthcare workforce in health communication, in addition to letting patients know what their insurance policies cover and what the patient must pay.
GMT 18:35 2018 Thursday ,11 January
Syrian refugee sets himself ablaze at UN office in LebanonGMT 18:48 2018 Tuesday ,09 January
Novo Nordisk woos Belgian nano-drug makerGMT 17:54 2017 Wednesday ,27 December
Medical evacuations begin from besieged Syria rebel bastionGMT 12:14 2017 Monday ,25 December
MoHAP successfully conducts cochlear implant operationGMT 18:24 2017 Sunday ,24 December
Palestinian conjoined twins arrive in RiyadhGMT 19:05 2017 Monday ,18 December
new! magazine names fitness & food editorGMT 17:03 2017 Wednesday ,29 November
Spain reports case of 'mad cow disease'GMT 14:05 2017 Saturday ,11 November
EU can't agree on new licence for controversial glyphosate weedkiller
Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2025 ©
Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2025 ©
Send your comments
Your comment as a visitor