How many people have limited health literacy?
According to the Institute of Medicine Report on health literacy, 90 million people have difficulty understanding and using health information. Certain groups have an especially high prevalence of limited literacy. They include people who completed fewer years of education, minorities, the poor, the elderly, and persons with lower cognitive ability. Other factors associated with limited literacy include living in the South or Northeast (rather than the West and Midwest), female gender, incarceration, and income status classified as poor or near poor. Source: Literacy and Health Outcomes, AHRQ, 2004. Rural Americans are one of the most at risk populations for limited health literacy because of the higher incidence of poverty and lower educational levels as compared to metro areas. Rural areas have higher instances of poverty than metro areas. Living in poverty tends to lead to higher instances of limited health literacy.
