Hi Everyone,

I don't want to deflect from the current thread about testing health
literacy in clinics, but two things crossed my desk recently that made
me want to ask about Health Numeracy. See the link below for some
information about a study done on diabetes management and literacy and
numeracy skills:

http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/148/10/I-53

In this study, they tested diabetic patients for literacy skills and
numeracy skills, and then looked at how the numeracy skills affected
their blood sugar management. There was a lot of variation in blood
sugar control, and better numeracy skills were associated with a slight
improvement in blood sugar control. But what I found most striking was
that in their sample, twice as many people had low numeracy skills
(below a 9th grade level) as those with low literacy skills.

Why are people's numeracy skills worse than their literacy skills? 
In what ways do these poor numeracy skills affect health, perhaps in
ways that we don't associate with literacy?
What are people doing out there to address numeracy skills in relation
to health literacy?

Love to hear your thoughts,
Julie

P.S. ...and see the next message for more on numeracy!

Julie McKinney
Health Literacy List Moderator
World Education
jmckinney at worlded.org