10/23/2025
Literacy is life-saving.
In their 2005 paper “The role of literacy in health and health care", Dewalt and Pignone argue that literacy not only provides adults with a better understanding of healthcare, but also better access to it.
They write: “Patients with inadequate literacy have less health-related knowledge, receive less preventive care, have poorer control of their chronic illnesses, and are hospitalized more frequently than other patients” (p. 463).
Dewalt, D. A., & Pignone, M. P. (2005). The role of literacy in health and health care. American Family Physician, 72(3), 387–388.