Low Health Literacy

TO THE EDITOR:

I agree with Berkman and colleagues (1) that many facets of the health literacy issue remain unexamined. I do believe that as our colleagues become more aware of the problem, we will see a more robust investigational approach that includes patient–provider communication, patient learning styles, teaching methods, specific readability scales for health-related information, and many other areas related to health literacy.

Our anticoagulation clinic regularly measures health literacy by using the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine—Short Form (REALM-SF); we then provide our patients with health literacy–appropriate communication and written literature. Although the REALM-SF does not ...