Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Patient Comprehension: An Analysis of Risk Factors for Limited Understanding

摘要

Category:OtherIntroduction/Purpose:Individuals with inadequate health literacy and limited comprehension may lack the skills needed to make informed decisions about their health. They are also at risk for inferior treatment outcomes and are more likely to express dissatisfaction with their care. Unfortunately, the Institute of Medicine has declared low health literacy a “silent epidemic”, as approximately 50% of Americans are afflicted. Because foot and ankle disorders are common, often disabling, and at times utilize a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities unfamiliar to patients, it is critical that we gain insight into patients’ foot and ankle comprehension. As such, we developed a novel questionnaire, the Foot and Ankle Literacy Survey (FALS), to evaluate this and the relationship between demographic factors and foot and ankle specific comprehension.Methods:The 14 question FALS (Figure 1A) was developed by our study group and was distributed to a consecutive series of 206 English-speaking ad...