News Brief
Patient literacy is a measure used by physicians to assess how well patients can understand the information they are given and how well they can use that information to make the best decisions possible for themselves.
The assumption is, of course, the better educated the patient, the more patient-literate that person will be.
In the interests of full disclosure, I can’t do everything on the Institute of Medicine’s list to rate as a fully literate patient. Biostatistics and I have a hard time, even though I work on it a lot.
In two studies in this journal, one can see, that even well-educated patients’ recall and comprehension was not very good, although somewhat better than it was for those who are not.
Bottom line: Whatever the patient’s educational levels, comprehension levels are entirely too low for treatment to be as effective and/or safe as it could and should be.
This Mayo editorial says, “We (doctors) communicate this information badly.”
Mayo Clinic Proceedings, May, 2008
“Effective spoken and written communication of information about medicine to patients is crucial to the success of treatments. The effectiveness and safety of medicines cannot be maximized unless patients understand their role in the medicine-taking process. However, we generally communicate this information badly. Great effort and much time and money are devoted to the front end of developing medicines, but at the end of that process, when the medicine is actually handed over to patients, much is left to chance. (Emphasis added)
“Hospital discharge offers a good opportunity for exploring how to communicate with patients to support the best use of their medicines. Two articles in this issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings examine what happens when people are discharged from the hospital with new medicines.1,2 Both throw into sharp relief the inadequacies of support systems for patients’ use of medicines at home, the medicines on which the success of much of modern health care is based.
“Kripalani et al1 followed up patients after hospital stays for acute coronary syndrome. They found that 22% had not filled their prescriptions and that 21% had some difficulty understanding the purpose of their medicines. In their patient population, literacy skills were limited.
“The second article by Maniaci et al2 featured a group of relatively well-educated patients given at least 1 new medicine while in hospital. When telephoned at home 1 to 2 weeks later, 14% were not aware they had been given a new medicine, and 36% did not know the name of the medicine or its purpose. As the authors rightly point out, success of outpatient treatment could hinge on patients’ understanding of their new medications. Knowing the name and purpose of a medicine is clearly central to being able to use it appropriately,” the journal editorial said.
Citation: Mayo Clin Proc. 2008;83:520-522 © 2008 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research