A pair of studies suggests that these tools may be limited by deficiencies in literacy and numeracy.
By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff in American Medical News, Nov. 3, 2008
The usefulness of having patients complete written screening tests while in the waiting room may be limited by a lack of understanding of the questions, according to a pair of papers presented at the American College of Surgeons 94th Annual Clinical Congress in San Francisco, Oct. 12-16.
"There is a true epidemic of health illiteracy in this country. Do not assume that your patients are literate with either prose or numeracy," said Viraj A. Master, MD, PhD, one of the authors and an assistant professor of urology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
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