Health Literacy and Ophthalmic Patient Education
Abstract
In 1997, Ebrahimzadeh, Davalos, and Lee wrote in this journal that only 32% of the ophthalmic patient educational materials reviewed were written at or below the recommended eighth-grade reading level. Since that time, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that more than one-third of adult Americans possess only basic or below basic health literacy skills, defined as the ability to understand written information in a healthcare setting. Subsequently, investigators have shown that poor health literacy skills are associated with poor prescription medication adherence, increased hospital admissions, and increased mortality. We review the readability of currently available ophthalmic educational materials, with particular attention to the health literacy status of the patient population for which the materials are intended. Examples of prose at various readability levels are provided. Optimizing patient education and improving clinical outcomes requires understanding the attributes that the patient brings to the patient–physician relationship, including health literacy.
Key words: adherence, literacy, ophthalmic patient educational material
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Dr. Muir receives salary support from the National Institue of Health and the Veterans' Health Administration. Dr. Lee is a consultant for Pfizer, Allergan, and Genentech; he has received research support from Pfizer, Alcon, Allergan, and Genentech; and he owns stock in Merck and Pfizer. The authors reported no proprietary or commercial interest in any product mentioned or concept discussed in this article. Publication of this article was supported by funding from the Research to Prevent Blindness, the Carr family, an unrestricted grant from Pfizer, and NIH k–12 support. The funding organizations had no role in the design or conduct of this research.
PII: S0039-6257(10)00075-5
doi:10.1016/j.survophthal.2010.03.005
Published by Elsevier Inc.
