> Hell, roughly half of American adults are so illiterate that they can't even read the one sentence instructions on their medications.
I'm not defending health illiteracy, but let's look at this rationally. What is the most logical and efficienct solution to half of Americans being unable to read labels on medicine?
A) Try to educate all those people
B) Make the damn labels easier to comprehend so that this problems wouldn't exist in the first place.
When the directions say "must be administered orally," can you really expect their meaning to be fully conveyed to every adult who reads them? Why can't we just change it to "drink it"?
Sure, it doesn't use the technical terms that healthcare professional are taught with. But despite all its scientific underpinnings, in the end, healthcare is about providing a (vital) service to customers. And if they lack the necessary skills to understand something, then the healthcare industry needs to respond to that deficiency, not the other way around.
"Make the damn labels easier to comprehend so that this problems wouldn't exist in the first place."
The solution is threefold: education, simplifying directions/processes, and changing culture. Changing the labels and creating things like extended release pills (so you only need to take one per day) is definitely the most low-hanging fruit in terms of fixing adherence, but it doesn't actually fix our democracy, economy, or culture.
I'm not defending health illiteracy, but let's look at this rationally. What is the most logical and efficienct solution to half of Americans being unable to read labels on medicine?
A) Try to educate all those people
B) Make the damn labels easier to comprehend so that this problems wouldn't exist in the first place.
When the directions say "must be administered orally," can you really expect their meaning to be fully conveyed to every adult who reads them? Why can't we just change it to "drink it"?
Sure, it doesn't use the technical terms that healthcare professional are taught with. But despite all its scientific underpinnings, in the end, healthcare is about providing a (vital) service to customers. And if they lack the necessary skills to understand something, then the healthcare industry needs to respond to that deficiency, not the other way around.