Patient health literacy: Implications for physician practice and health system planning

Abstract

What is health literacy and why should it be important to physicians? Health literacy has profound implications for how people interact with their physicians and other health-care professionals, how they interact with the health-care system, and how theymanage their illnesses. For physicians and other health-care professionals, assessing the patient’s level of literacy is critical throughout the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment stages. Physicians