Evaluating a Health Literacy Kit for Physicians
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2005
Abstract
About 90 million adults in the United State have difficulty accurately and consistently locating, matching, and integrating information. These people are less likely to be able to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services; they have low health literacy. Patients with low health literacy struggle with prescription instructions, medicine labels, requited medical forms, have longer hospitals stays, experience poorer health outcomes, and cost the health care system billions of dollars, annually. The American Medical Association (AMA) developed a health literacy kit to help physicians meet the needs of these patients. The AMA evaluated the kit through a written survey and structured interviews with early adopters.Physicians utilized the kit in their own practices and shared the materials, especially the videotape, during staff meetings, in-service training programs, and other venues to reach more that 9700 professionals. Interviewees recommended improvements for the kit and areas for future research.