Don't Trust Me for Health News
Really. A new survey says there are two reasons patients are having difficulty understanding, or getting their medical conditions right. One, they rely too much on the Internet (to which, I can personally attest, after being diagnosed with breast cancer), where the information is often, if not inaccurate, not always applicable to every person. And two, the reading level of educational materials medical professionals have on hand are often confusing and too hard to understand for most anyone who's not a doctor. According to a story at Reuters Health, "The average reading level of the online materials by groups ranging from the American Society of Anesthesiologists to the American Psychiatric Association fell anywhere from ninth grade to the sophomore year of college." What's the level recommended by the American Medical Association? Fourth to sixth grade. While that sounds pretty low, keep in mind that we're talking about very technical terms and situa...