The effective practice of evidence-based medicine requires the application of ‘current best evidence’ to individual patient care.1 While there is consensus that it is critical to include patients’ individual preferences in medical decision-making,1–4 the best way to involve patients in the process is unclear. Patient preferences may be dictated by specifi c circumstances, such as age, as well a...

Background: Self-medication is a challenging issue in health care systems and it seems that health literacy is a determining factor in safe self-medication behaviors. Limited studies are available in this field. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the relationship between health literacy and self-medicating behaviors among women referred to comprehensive health care centers Mater...

Low literacy and chronic pain have been identified as significant problems in the rural USA. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a widely used efficacious psychosocial treatment for chronic pain; adaptations for low-literacy rural populations are lacking. This paper reports on preparatory steps implemented to address this deficit. Adapting an existing group, CBT patient workbook for rural adu...

Background: Worldwide, about 350 million people are infected with Hepatitis B virus (HBV), most of them in Asia. Up to 1 million of them die due to these sequels annually. Few studies concerned about HBV awareness of Iranians young people. As health education programs should be based on awareness of target group about the disease, we conducted a national survey to evaluate health literacy and v...

BACKGROUND Refugees have poorer health compared to indigenous populations, which may be explained by lower health literacy, i.e. not being able to access, understand, appraise or apply health information. This study aims to determine levels of functional and comprehensive health literacy, and factors associated with inadequate health literacy, in refugees coming to Sweden. METHOD A cross-sect...

OBJECTIVES To review the relationship between parent and child literacy and child health outcomes and interventions designed to improve child health outcomes for children or parents with low literacy skills. METHODS We searched Medline and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) for articles published from 1980 through 2008 and included studies that reported orig...