Impact Of Literacy Difficulties
Literacy difficulties can increase the potential for miscommunication in the healthcare environment.
This miscommunication can lead to additional hospital and doctor visits, longer hospital stays and extra tests, procedures and prescriptions. US research shows that only about half of all patients take medicines as directed. This puts an unnecessary strain on hospital resources and finances.
People with low health literacy may find many aspects of the healthcare environment daunting and, as a result, may not receive important health information. For example, research has shown that patients:
- often misunderstand their diagnosis based on a lack of understanding of complex medical terms,
- find it difficult to navigate a hospital due to unclear signage, and
- are unable to read or understand the complex information on medicine packaging.