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Article: Health Literacy Innovations & the AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Companies Release the Nations First Comprehensive Health Literacy and Plain Language Resource Guide.
- Article from:
- Diabetes Week
- Article date:
- April 13, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 NewsRX. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Low health literacy is a problem that leads to poor health outcomes for millions of Americans and costs the health care industry an estimated $60 billion a year.
Consumers with low health literacy - those who cannot read, understand, or act on health information and instructions - face multiple health risks. Confusion about or lack of health care information may result in poor control of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, more hospitalizations and longer lengths of stay, and improperly taken medications (see also Life Sciences).
Many health care providers are becoming increasingly aware of the issue and challenge of health literacy, but do not know ...