Many Americans too illiterate to understand prescription medication labels: NewsTarget.com

More and more people living in America don't have the needed English-language literacy skills to read, interpret and follow directions -- and that can cause big problems when prescription medications are not taken per the doctor's orders. Even people with higher levels of literacy still can't understand some intricacies of medication labels.

According to a recent study, a sample of ethnically diverse primary care patients from community health centers were looked at by researchers to see if they could demonstrate understanding of instructions on prescription labels for five common medications.

The highest rates of misunderstanding across each of the five bottle labels occurred among patients with the lowest literacy levels. Misunderstanding was common even among those with the highest literacy levels. Further analysis showed that lower literacy and greater number of prescription medications taken were associated with misunderstanding.

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Many Americans too illiterate to understand prescription medication labels

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