TY - JOUR AU - Debra B. Reed PY - 2016/10/12 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Literacy and health literacy - why they matter to health professionals JF - The Southwest Respiratory and Critical Care Chronicles JA - The Chronicles VL - 4 IS - 16 SE - In The Clinic DO - UR - https://pulmonarychronicles.com/index.php/pulmonarychronicles/article/view/322 AB - Low literacy and low health literacy affect people in all demographic strata and interfere with patients’ abilities to understand and act on information provided by health careproviders. Many print health education materials are written at reading levels well above those recommended. Thus, compliance to health messages is compromised, and health costs are increased. As medicine moves into new fields such as precision medicine, effective communication between patients and health care professionals becomes even more challenging and important. ER -