New England Journal of Medicine: health effects of illiteracy

In today’s New England Journal of Medicine, an interesting disucssion of the impact of both general literacy and health literacy on patient’s health-related practices and involvement in their care – illiteracy referred to as a relatively “silent epidemic” in health care due to the difficulty of clinician assessment of skills and the possibility that this issue isn’t “on the radar” for clinicians given the complexity of managing the spectrum of patient care.

Reference: Marcus EN. The silent epidemic — the health effects of illiteracy. New Engl J Med 2006 Jul 27; Volume 355:339-341.