Future Now
The IFTF Blog
So much information, such limited ability to understand it all
As patients or health consumers, we have an ever-increasing abundance of information at our fingertips. The Web is full of resources, from WebMd to Wikipedia to Daily Strength to a host of other sites that may or may not be reliable sources. Even the most savvy of users may find sifting through all this information a challenge. Companies like Navigenics and 23andMe provide complex data about our personal health that certainly requires explanation to be properly understood. As we continue to move toward empowering people to become active participants in their health care, we make the assumption that they will be able to keep up with and synthesize the abundance of information that may be relevant to their health.
We sometimes talk about the importance of health literacy, but Steven Dahl's blog post really brought the idea into focus for me today. He reminds us that:
Even in a non-medical centext, literacy levels are quite worrying, and more often underestimated than not: For example a study by Wallendorf (2001) points out that while almost all adults in first world countries are assumed to be able to read and write, 21% of adult Americans have only rudimentary skills, leaving them unable to extract even simple information from printed material. A further 25% can perform simple reading functions but “cannot integrate or synthesize several facts” from documents.
I find these numbers sobering. Of course, low levels of literacy do not correlate with low intelligence. Dahl acknowledges that "many people with low literacy levels haves exceptionally high levels of intelligence. Not least, they have learned how to circumvent intelligently reading complex information in everyday life."
I can't help but wonder how the cohort described above, which is already challenged to follow directions from the highly educated, highly literate medical professionals it encounters, will navigate a shift toward participatory medicine. Information will have to be made accessible and understandable. Are we ready to take on that obligation?