We provide new empirical evidence on the importance of defined contribution pension wealth in England, and the nature of annuitization decisions taken by older adults who retire with such sources of wealth. Other things equal, financial literacy, and numeracy in particular, are important factors governing individuals' choices over whether to shop around for an annuity as opposed to taking the '...

The intersection of the genetics era and information age poses unique and daunting challenges for health consumers who may not have the health literacy to keep pace. While rapid advances in genetics research promise enhanced care, the inherent complexities and individualistic nature of genetic information have resulted in a challenging information environment. The technical possibilities for ac...

OBJECTIVE: To propose a framework and describe best practices for improving care for patients with limited health literacy (LHL). METHODS: Review of the literature. RESULTS: Approximately half of the U.S. adult population has LHL. Because LHL is associated with poor health outcomes and contributes to health disparities, the adoption of evidence-based best practices is imperative. Feasible inter...

This paper aims to look at the computer and Internet related beliefs among Estonian computer users and non-users. It uses data from two nationally representative surveys to analyze seven Internet and computer related beliefs. The paper also discusses how understanding the opinions of computer users and non-users should influence the policies of the information society. As a conclusion, policy s...

Nancy E. Adams is Associate Director, Penn State Hershey George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library; e-mail: [email protected]. © 2014 Nancy E. Adams, Attribution-NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) CC BY-NC Evidence-based practice (EBP), like information literacy, is concerned with an individual’s knowledge, skills, and attitudes relating to using information. EBP is...

In the matter of financial literacy it is often supposed that more is automatically preferable to less. This paper considers to what extent this may be true generally, and specifically focuses on the case of investment forecasting skill (a significant component of an individual’s financial literacy). We show that the while improved forecasting skill can increase an individual’s own utility, the...

Scientific literacy can also be described as a level of public understanding of science that encourages one to act in concert with scientific consensus. Investigating actions concerned with environmental conservation, we examine the context specificity of this form of scientifically literate action and the differential motivations that predict such action across contexts. We report on a large s...

Health systems will face new challenges in this millennium. Striking the balance between the best quality of care and optimal use of dwindling resources will challenge health policy makers, managers and practitioners. Increasingly, improvements in the outcomes of interventions for both acute and chronic patients will depend on partnerships between health service providers, the individual and th...