These literacy activities increased in prevalence between 1991 and 1995. Just giving free books to pediatric patients can enhance literacy, health, and the quality of life of child and parent. The first step in responding to health literacy requires further study, Stephen Somers, PhD, President of the Center for Health Care Strategies, Inc, said. You don't want to lose all the political constituencies by being too narrow, but the opportunity to act quickly may be in focusing on subgroups of people for whom there are the greatest incentives to act. Research that provides scientifically reliable evidence about health literacy has recently been done, but there are many research projects that have not yet been funded.
Health literacy is a problem without a defined constituency.
We need a complete problem description and to agree on a definition of functional health literacy to proceed with research. They have clearly been leaders all the way through this process. 1999 Pfizer Inc. All rights reserved.