Health literacy and arthritis research and practice

The following review summarizes contributions from rheumatology to the growing field of health literacy.

Arthritis related publications have primarily contributed to one strand of research in health literacy: assessments of print materials and considerations of the match between the reading grade level of materials and the reading skills of intended audiences. Unlike researchers addressing other chronic diseases such as diabetes, however, researchers and practitioners in rheumatology have yet to examine links between patients' literacy skills and health outcomes. In addition, only one early study reports on evaluation findings of an education program designed for audiences with low literacy skills. No other studies report on efforts to increase health literacy in arthritis, reduce the demands of print materials for education or research purposes, or on efforts to ameliorate the effects of limited literacy skills among patients.

Health literacy may well influence arthritis outcomes as well as recruitment efforts in arthritis research. The 2004 report on health literacy from the Institute of Medicine calls for additional studies focused on the links between health literacy and health outcomes.