Doctors Often Overestimate Patients’ Health Literacy
FRIDAY, Oct. 17 — Many patients misunderstand the written questions American doctors have them answer before physical exams, a finding that calls into question the usefulness of these screening tools, new reports say.
Two studies, presented earlier this year at the 2008 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons, found that lower-than-expected literacy levels among patients and a failure to understand basic numerical measurements hurt the validity of the questionnaire results. A third study, though, found promise in using computer programs to “speak” the questions to patients.