According to a study in the July 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine , "Health Literacy and Mortality Among Elderly Persons", David W. Baker et al, elderly patients who could not read physician's instructions or did not understand health information had a higher mortality rate than patients with adequate reading skills. Read the abstract.
The study found that inadequate health literacy was most strongly associated with death from cardiovascular disease and suggested communication with patients in plain language or using pictures or videos to explain complicated ideas can be used to reduce the high mortality rate associated with low health literacy. Read the press release.
No comments:
Post a Comment