The Kansas City Star — So when the label on your prescription bottle says to “take two tablets by mouth twice daily,” how many pills should you be taking each day?
It’s not supposed to be a trick question, but a third of patients quizzed at clinics that primarily serve the poor couldn’t give the right answer.
The problem is low health literacy — the limited ability to understand the technical jargon, the orders, the prescriptions and the forms coming from doctors, nurses, pharmacists and insurance companies.
This failure to communicate leads to missed doctor appointments, medications taken incorrectly, instructions ignored — all contributing to worsening health.
It’s starting to be recognized as a serious public health problem both nationally and locally.
“The whole culture of medicine, they’re so stuck on the way they’ve always done things. They don’t realize people don’t understand,” said Arthur Culbert, president of Health Literacy Missouri, a St. Louis-based nonprofit.
Culbert and members of his staff were in Kansas City on Thursday to meet with health officials and to publicize the problem of low health literacy.
More than 90 million U.S. adults have trouble understanding or acting on health information they receive.
Problems caused by low health literacy, from more frequent emergency room visits to lost days of work, have been estimated to cost $106 billion to $238 billion a year.
Culbert’s group estimates that in Missouri, 1.6 million adults have trouble understanding health information. That costs the state $3.3 billion to $7.5 billion annually.
Health information often assumes a 12th-grade or higher reading level. Only half of American adults read above a fifth-grade level.
The specialized language doctors speak also creates barriers to understanding: People who are feverish are febrile. Hardening of the arteries becomes atherosclerosis. Something that causes cancer is a carcinogen.
Locally, Children’s Mercy Hospital is trying to improve communication by having the medical staff ask families to explain back to them the instructions they’ve just received, said pediatrician Sharon Wilkerson.
This “teach-back” method helps ensure that parents don’t leave the hospital before they understand the essential information to care for their children at home, Wilkerson said.
Missouri Health Literacy is using multiple approaches in different parts of the state. In St. Louis, it’s weaving health information into adult education classes. In Springfield, it’s offering clinic patients help from nurses trained in health literacy.
As one of the first state organizations of its kind, Missouri Health Literacy “stands out as a national leader,” said Capt. Jose Belardo, acting regional health administrator for the Department of Health and Human Services.
And just in case you were wondering how many pills the instructions at the beginning of this story called for, the correct answer is four.
By ALAN BAVLE
