Mr. Wu is 58-year-old Chinese immigrant who has lived in the United States for 10 years. He has recently had a stroke and needs some durable medical equipment. He speaks and reads English well but his wife does not. They have many questions about the shower chair provided to them from a recent hospitalization. When explaining the purpose of the shower chair, the occupational therapy practitioner should consider:

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Health literacy refers to "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions" (USDHHS, 2000, pp. 11-20). Osborne (2005) believes that health literacy goes beyond the individual and that it is the mutual responsibility of the health-care provider to communicate information in ways that can be understood and applied. The national emphasis on health literacy is based, in part, on research that demonstrates relationships among health literacy, health disparities, and health outcomes. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, "adults with low literacy levels are more likely than those with high literacy levels to be poor and to have health conditions which limit their activities" (National Network of Libraries of Medicine, 2006, p. 3). Low health literacy is also linked to higher hospitalization rates, more frequent use of emergency room services, less compliance with health recommendations, and more frequent errors with medication management. Studies on health literacy and health outcomes have elucidated the connections between low health literacy and cancer incidence, mortality, and quality of life (Merriman, Ades, & Seffrin, 2002), glycemic control and rates of retinopathy in persons with type 2 diabetes (Schillinger, Grumbach, Piette, and Wang, 2002), and other health conditions (Williams, Baker, Honig, Lee, & Nowlan, 1998; Williams, Baker, Parker, & Nurss, 1998).

Mr Wu Is 58-Year-Old Chinese Immigrant Who Has Lived in the United