Low Patient Health Literacy Poses Risks, AMA Says

Doctors at the AMA leadership conference Saturday discussed ways to help the 90 million Americans who "have difficulty comprehending" and following medical information, the Associated Press reports. Patients who are unable to understand medical forms and prescription instructions face risks to their health and cost the health care system $73 billion per year in unnecessary doctor visits, hospitalizations, and longer hospital stays, according to AMA estimates. Doctors attending the conference said health literacy is particularly a problem for the growing number of senior citizens who have problems with vision, hearing and cognitive skills; patients for whom English is not their first language; and patients who are unable to read or have learning disabilities, such as dyslexia. According to Dr. Mark Williams, director of the hospital medical unit at the Emory University School of Medicine, "Many patients are simply too embarrassed to let the doctor know they do not understand what they are being asked or told." To address the health literacy problem, conference participants recommended that doctors take more time to explain instructions and do so in "plain English" as opposed to "doctor speak." Panelists also advocated changing office forms to make them "easier to read," and eliminating complicated legal and medical terms in consent forms. "Patients are asked to sign these every day, and they don't understand what they're signing," psychologist Terry Davis, a professor at Louisiana State University's School of Medicine, said (Greenberg, Associated Press, 3/5). To view the leadership conference agenda, including information on the health literacy presentation, visit http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/upload/mm/nlcinfo.pdf. Note: You must have Adobe Acrobat to view the document.