Several web-based search engines have been developed to assist individuals to find clinical trials for which they may be interested in volunteering. However, these search engines may be difficult for individuals with low health and computer literacy to navigate. The authors present findings from a usability evaluation of clinical trial search tools with 41 participants across the health and com...

BACKGROUND While the association between inadequate health literacy and adverse health outcomes has been well documented, less is known about the impact of health literacy on health perceptions, such as perceptions of control over health, and preventive health behaviors. METHODS We identified a subsample of participants (N = 707) from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally repres...

BACKGROUND An estimated one-half of Americans have limited health literacy skills. Low literacy has been associated with less receipt of preventive services, but its impact on colorectal cancer (CRC) screening is unclear. We sought to determine whether low literacy affects patients' knowledge or receipt of CRC screening. METHODS Pilot survey study of patients aged 50 years and older at a larg...

OBJECTIVES To assess the prevalence of low health literacy among adolescents, young adults, and child caregivers in the United States, the readability of common child-health information, and the relationship between literacy and child health. DATA SOURCES MedLine, Educational Resources Information Center, National Library of Medicine, PsychInfo, Harvard Health Literacy Bibliography, and peer-...

OBJECTIVE Despite innovations in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), adherence is poor and disparities persist. Shared decision making (SDM) promotes patient engagement and enhances adherence; however, few tools support SDM in RA. Our objective was to pilot a low-literacy medication guide and decision aid to facilitate patient-clinician conversations about RA medications. METHODS RA patie...

Patients vary in their preferences towards involvement in medical decision-making. Previous research, however, gives no clear explanation for this observed variation in their involvement. One possible explanation might be health literacy. Health literacy refers to personal characteristics and social resources needed for people to access, understand and use information to make decisions about th...

BACKGROUND Inadequate health literacy affects more than 90 million Americans and it has been associated with adverse outcomes in the medicine field including increased hospitalization rates and greater mortality. Since surgical patients are often required to make complex decisions and adhere to complex instructions, health literacy may have a profound impact in the surgical practice. The main o...

The home literacy environment (HLE) predicts language and reading development in typically developing children; relatively little is known about its association with literacy development in children at family-risk of dyslexia. We assessed the HLE at age 4 years, precursor literacy skills at age 5, and literacy outcomes at age 6, in a sample of children at family-risk of dyslexia (n = 116) and c...

There are a range of barriers precluding patients from fully engaging in and benefiting from the spectrum of eHealth interventions developed to support patient access to health information, disease self-management efforts, and patient-provider communication. Consumers with low eHealth literacy skills often stand to gain the greatest benefit from the use of eHealth tools. eHealth skills are comp...

Computer literacy, digital literacy, information literacy, and a host of other terms have all been used to attempt to appropriately describe particular competencies that an individual must know in the information age. However, literacy, of any type, in the information era should not be defined without including the tools that allow one to become more literate and eventually reap the benefits of...