Article: Heath care illiteracy implications for providers: approximately 90 million adults in the United States are illiterate, a condition that frequently underlies low health literacy. Risk factors include poverty, incarceration, lack of education, immigration status, age, and race.(Illiteracy)

One quarter of adults in the United States are functionally illiterate. (1) Although the US Department of Education conducted the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) in 1992, the problem of how this high rate of illiteracy affects health care still goes widely unnoticed. A report released last year by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) emphasized that health care illiteracy remains prevalent and has still not been effectively addressed by health care providers. (2) Regulatory agencies and national organizations have noticed the problem, however. At AAPA's 32nd Annual PA Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Julie Theriault, PA-C, president-elect of the ...

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