Clinical research studyThe impact of low health literacy on the medical costs of Medicare managed care enrollees
Section snippets
Study sample
Enrollment of study participants and data collection, which were conducted by the Prudential Center for Healthcare Research (now the Emory Center on Health Outcomes and Quality), have been described in detail previously.9 Individuals newly enrolling in the Medicare managed care plans of Prudential Healthcare in 4 locations (Cleveland, Ohio; Houston, Texas; South Florida, and Tampa, Florida) between December 1996 and August 1997 were eligible to participate. New members were contacted 3 months
Results
Among the 3260 responders, there were 800 persons with inadequate health literacy, 366 with marginal health literacy, and 2094 with adequate health literacy. There were large and statistically significant differences by health literacy level in terms of age, race/ethnicity, income, education, alcohol and tobacco consumption, and comorbid conditions (Table 1). Taken together, these comparisons show that controlling for underlying differences in individual characteristics is important when
Discussion
Recently released reports by the Institute of Medicine and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality conclude that the 90 million adults in our country with limited health literacy cannot fully benefit from medical care and the health care system.4, 27 The reports note various interventions that hold promise for improving health literacy in various clinical settings. These include educational tools designed specifically for patients with low health literacy, health education programs for
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This work was supported by an unrestricted grant from Pfizer.