Health literacy: improving quality of care in primary care settings.

A 78 year old woman struggles to read the label on her prescription bottle. She knows she needs to take her blood pressure medication, but cannot read the label on the bottle to determine which one is her blood pressure medicine, nor how many she should take, so she picks one. She remembers the doctor told her to take the medicine twice a day so she takes two pills at one time. In an exam room, a 45 year old Hispanic male nods and agrees to what his doctor is telling him in English about diabetes when he came in for knee pain. He leaves unsure of what has happened. His knee still hurts and he doesn’t know what diabetes is or why he is discussing it with him. English is not his primary language. In another exam room, a 50 year old Mung patient wonders why the doctor keeps asking her questions about her medical history when all she wants is medicine for her chronic stomach pain. She is not comfortable talking to the doctor and thinks he must not be very good if he has to ask her so many questions.*