A new report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reveals low health literacy in older Americans correlates to poorer health and a higher risk of death, according to a news release.
The evidence report also found an association between low health literacy in all adults, regardless of age, and more frequent use of hospital emergency rooms and inpatient care, compared with other adults.
The report — Health Literacy Interventions and Outcomes: An Update of the Literacy and Health Outcomes Systematic Review of the Literature — is an update of a 2004 literature review of findings from more than 100 new studies.
The authors of the report were led by Nancy D. Berkman, PhD, and Stacey Sheridan, MD, MPH, of the AHRQ-supported RTI International-University of North Carolina Evidence-based Practice Center.
Read the AHRQ news release about low health literacy.
To download the full report, click here (pdf).
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