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. 2008 Sep;13(6):583-95.
doi: 10.1080/10810730802281791.

Perspective: the role of numeracy in health care

Russell L Rothman  1 , Victor M Montori, Andrea Cherrington, Michael P Pignone
Affiliations

Perspective: the role of numeracy in health care

Russell L Rothman et al. J Health Commun. 2008 Sep.

Abstract

Numeracy, the "ability to understand and use numbers in daily life" is an important but understudied component of literacy. Numeracy-related tasks are common in health care and include understanding nutrition information, interpreting blood sugar readings and other clinical data, adjusting medications, and understanding probability in risk communication. While literacy and numeracy are strongly correlated, we have identified many patients with adequate reading ability but poor numeracy skills. Better tools to measure numeracy and more studies to assess the unique contribution of numeracy are needed. This research can contribute to developing interventions to improve outcomes for patients with poor numeracy.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Components of Literacy
From IOM Report(Institute of Medicine Committee on Health Literacy, 2004)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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