Decoding your health message
By Monica Rosas

If medical jargon is tough for an educated person to understand, can you imagine how hard it is for those adults who have difficulty reading or understanding what they read?

Developing easy-to-read content continues to be a challenging task in health communications. Often, people with major health problems not only have limited access to information but they also have a limited ability to process that information.

The National Adult Literacy Survey suggests that nearly 50 percent of all adults may have problems understanding basic medical information – and these figures don’t include the number of people who have language barriers. However, studies show that people with limited English skills are also less likely to have good health habits.

Being able to read and understand medical information is necessary in order to make informed healthcare decisions. Low or limited literacy skills can result in a patient’s misunderstanding of a diagnosis or treatment options, medication errors or bad habits in general.

On the positive side, many health education programs are in full swing to make the information in printed materials consumer-friendly, culturally sensitive and easier to understand. read more...

 

Wax clients are awarded for their custom magazines, newsletters, websites and other collateral

2010 has proved to be a great year for awards honoring Wax's clients! To add to our hefty list are the Aster Awards and the Mature Media Awards.  read more...