PATIENT ADVICE LEAFLETS

The Use of Patient Advice Leaflets and Their Benefits to the Patients Care and Treatment

The Use of Patient Advice Leaflets and Their Benefits to the Patients Care and Treatment

Functional illiteracy contributes to negative long-term health consequences for patients who must understand and adhere to complex health care instructions and, therefore, is of primary importance to community health nurses. This problem is compounded when English is the patient's second language. A process for improving patient advice materials (PEMs) through adaptation or creation of new materials to meet the health needs of diverse groups is presented. The process was applied to a popular health advice program used with school-age children and their parents to teach them home management of asthma.

Target parents were known to read at a 5th-grade level, and English was a second language for many of them. Therefore, extensive revision of the existing PEMs was required. The steps to successful revision included assessing readability and comprehensibility, editing the materials, and evaluating the new PEMs to determine the effectiveness of the revision measures.

Patient literacy has a significant impact on the delivery of health advice. Roughly 40 million adult Americans (20%) are functionally illiterate.

Functional illiteracy refers to difficulty comprehending complex materials rather than a lack of basic reading skills. Literacy is of primary importance to community health nurses as they strive to reach the health needs of diverse groups.

Individuals who are functionally illiterate cannot benefit from health advice materials that are written at too high a level. Fully half of patients entering acute care sites cannot read at a fifth-grade level contributing to difficulty with health care information, comprehending pill bottle instructions, or even deciphering appointment slips.

Functional illiteracy contributes to negative long-term health consequences for patients who must understand and adhere to complex health care instructions.

Patients who are functionally illiterate have lower socioeconomic status (SES), less advice, and more chronic health problems as compared to patients who read at the high-school level. Exploratory studies demonstrate strong correlations between literacy levels and knowledge of chronic illness and illness management. Changes in health care delivery have led to shorter hospital stays, more community-based services, and increasingly complex home care, thereby complicating the management of chronic illness. The limited duration of contact between health care providers and patients makes it imperative that patient advice materials (PEMs) be adapted to meet patient needs.

Written materials are a cost effective way of providing patient advice. They can be given to patients for later review at home to reinforce, clarify, or augment verbal instructions. The utility of written materials depends on the readability, organisation, and accuracy of the contents. Studies on the readability of PEMs reveal mean reading levels between Grade 8.66 for asthma literature.

Considering that 20% of the American public cannot read above Grade 5, the reading level of PEMs has significant implications for clinicians.

The patient is also predictable to meet certain errands including following the plan of care, providing complete and precise health information and communicating their understanding of instructions on ...