I found the health literacy report to be very interesting. I had no idea that almost half of the American population has deficiencies in reading and that 25 percent are functionally illiterate. This was a real eye opener for me. From the Healthy Smiles project I am working on I remember having to making all reading materials at 8th grade level but I thought it was a little overboard (as in we were making things too easy) but now after reading this article I understand a lot better. It is pretty scary that 60% of people could not understand a consent form, 42% could not understand taking medicine on an empty stomach. It makes me really wonder about our educational system. I know when I lived in Alaska I was pretty much awe struck that a third of the population of the state did not graduate high school. However, almost half of the population having deficiencies in reading is even worse than that. That means most of the states are having as many problems as AK while dealing with education.

I think there should be another profession whose job it is to explain the directions for medications ect. While the article placed the burden on physicians I feel that it would be more cost effective to use a person who specialized in this. Most physicians are already overworked and have a higher pay scale than most people so to hire people who specialize in this area and most presumably would be at a lower pay scale seems to make the most sense to me. Also people may feel less awkward asking someone all the questions they have when it is not their doctor but rather someone whose job it is to answer and explain everything to them.

As for the Friemuth and Mettger article I thought a lot of their suggestions were good on different ways to reach a "hard to reach" audience. I disagree with labeling the disadvantaged “other advantaged”. I feel it takes away the importance of putting extra effort and resources into helping the disadvantaged out or trying to do anything policy wise to change the situations that are making them disadvantaged. With disadvantaged I feel like we should make an effort to better education ect but with “other advantaged” I do not feel the same.

Sorry to be a little late with the submission- my internet was on the fritz last night.