Don't use all capitals or italics, because these are difficult for many people to read. Avoid using complicated charts and graphs. The goals of most health care materials are disease prevention and health promotion. In order for people to change behavior, they must be able to understand and use information. Although many people believed that low-literate adults would not read books such as this, giving adults a book written well above their reading skill level is comparable to giving someone a book written in a foreign language.
More research is needed to demonstrate the usefulness of such books.
But preliminary results indicate that given the opportunity to use books that are easy to read and easy to understand, many people with poor reading skills will make use of the self-help materials. Ann Kuklierus, R.N., and Gloria Mayer, R.N., Ed.D., are nurses and the authors of three low-literate books. Inc. All rights reserved.