The study suggests that patients with liver disease and diabetes may be the most health-literate: They were the only two groups to do better than the general population when identifying their affected organ. Overall, 75.3% of those with liver disease could find the liver (versus 45.9% in the general population) and 53.7% of diabetics could locate the pancreas (versus 30.8%).
“It is possible that patient-education material for people with diabetes may help to increase their knowledge [of the pancreas], but it is still only at the 50% level,” Weinman says. “The same explanation may also be true for liver disease, but it may be a chance finding due to the sampling of patients for this study, and it really needs replicating in other larger studies to be certain it is a robust finding and to search for possible reasons for it.”
Weinman says there’s a mountain of evidence to prove that effective communication from doctors increases patient satisfaction and understanding, leading to better clinical outcomes and improved adherence to treatment.
Dr. Jauhar agrees that health literacy improves not only the quality of health care, but also life expectancy. “Health literacy is clearly very important, and how well patients are versed in their own health care is probably just as important a factor in determining longevity as genes or socioeconomic status,” he says. “These are important factors in how long someone lives.”
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