Nancy D. Berkman

TL;DR: Risk of Bias In Non-randomised Studies - of Interventions is developed, a new tool for evaluating risk of bias in estimates of the comparative effectiveness of interventions from studies that did not use randomisation to allocate units or clusters of individuals to comparison groups.

TL;DR: Low health literacy was consistently associated with more hospitalizations; greater use of emergency care; lower receipt of mammography screening and influenza vaccine; poorer ability to demonstrate taking medications appropriately; poorer able to interpret labels and health messages; and, among elderly persons, poorer overall health status and higher mortality rates.

TL;DR: Differences in health literacy level were consistently associated with increased hospitalizations, greater emergency care use, lower use of mammography, lower receipt of influenza vaccine, poorer ability to demonstrate taking medications appropriately, poorer able to interpret labels and health messages, and, among seniors, poorer overall health status and higher mortality.

TL;DR: Low literacy is associated with several adverse health outcomes and future research, using more rigorous methods, will better define these relationships and guide developers of new interventions.

TL;DR: A brief history of literacy in the United States is presented, followed by a discussion of the origins and conceptualization of health literacy, which suggests the need to review existing definitions of the term “health literacy.”