Additional findings from the Partnership for Clear Health Communication study suggest that 90 million Americans have low health literacy, and that the average person with low health literacy spends $7,500 more per year in health expenses than does the average person with higher health literacy.13 The American Medical Association stated that
in the United States we spend enormous financial resources on medical complications. Data suggest that financial resources amounting to 4 times the allowable amount were
allocated for care for avoidable or preventable medical complications,14 which equates to $50 –73 billion per year in unnecessary doctor visits and hospital in-patient days.13
From these statistics alone it is apparent how relevant health literacy is in today’s society. Spending unnecessary money on health-care can put an immense burden on a family’s savings and also add to the national debt if the patient or family is incapable of paying the medical expenses.Compounding this problem is the fact that many patients may be confused about discharge instructions on routine care or medication administration but embarrassed or intimidated to ask for the needed clarification, which
compromises the ability to adhere to therapy. This problem may be exacerbated by a physician’s misperception of a patient’s health literacy. Physicians tend to overestimate their patients’ health literacy. In one survey of 115 physicians, only 17.4% of patients were perceived to have low literacy,15 but the National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that 47–51% of Americans have low literacy, and above age 80, 89% are health-illiterate.15 Overestimation of a patient’s literacy may influence a physician’s choice of words or medical terms and cause him or her to exceed
the patient’s ability to comprehend the advice or instructions. This may ultimately increase unnecessary medical expenses, because of preventable errors and misconceptions. If information provided to patients through verbal communication, pamphlets, and Internet resources were provided at a comprehensible level (below 7th grade), several benefits to the public could be realized, beginning with improved outcomes. Easily understood information could enhance the patient’s ability to optimize his or her
plan of care, and improve disease management. An enhancement in self-esteem and confidence in the ability to self-manage the disease process also may be realized when
the patient understands the information provided.The intent of the present study was to determine whether the readability of articles provided to the public through
the Internet are written at a level at which the average American can comprehend. Comparison of the mean readability scores of the Web-based medical information with
USDHHS standards by multiple t-tests yielded statistically significant results, p .001. All of the consumer intended medical information we accessed on the Internet was written above the recommended 6th grade level. More than three quarters of the articles had a reading level at or above the “difficult” rating. Many of the articles had readability equivalent to the college freshman or sophomore level. Though the articles ranged from easy to far beyond difficult, the mean score of the 100 articles was
8 grade levels above the USDHHS readability recommendation. It was encouraging to find that the American Lung Association’s articles had the lowest overall mean score.However, across all domains the readability scores of the pulmonary material were well above the USDHHS recommended level.