title: Health literacy: an introduction to the literature.
abstract: Adult literacy is inextricably linked with adults' understanding of educational and informational materials concerning their health. Approximately 90 million American adults are functionally illiterate or have only marginal reading skills. This article describe the impact of poor literacy skills on patient health and the scope of the challenges to health literacy. The author also describes simple steps which dentists can undertake to identify patients with poor literacy skills and methods which may help improve educational programs for those patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, Indiana University School of Dentistry, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jackson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004522:Educational Status; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011932:Reading