Dear All,
Leaving aside the issue of how to store body mass data in a computer,
another issue is whether the patients, and all of the staff, can
understand medical test results and medication regimes because they
lack the needed level of literacy and numeracy skills. I don't know
the situation in the USA but I do know that we have a real problem
with this issue in Australia. Here is some data on literacy and
numeracy in Australia from a survey done in 2007 and reported in
January 2008. See http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/B22A471C221C7BADCA2573CA00207F10/$File/42280_2006%20(reissue).pdf
where the relevant data about health literacy is:
Health literacy '000 %
Level 1 2 923.1 19.4
Level 2 6 057.2 40.1
Level 3 5 249.0 34.7
Level 4/5 876.1 5.8
Total 15 105.4 100
In this survey, they specifically tested for understanding of words
and numbers associated with 'health literacy proficiency'. If you look
at the data on page 20 (see summary above) you will see that Skill
levels 1 and 2 add to 59.5 % of the Australian population, those aged
between 15 and 74, do not have sufficient skills to comprehend 'health
literacy' information as they are below Health literacy proficiency
Level 3, which is regarded as the base level for understanding of
health information.
As the Australian free and compulsory education systems began in 1872
— 137 years ago — I don't believe that we will have much change in
these figures anytime soon. We do, however, need to face the reality
of issues like our low rates of literacy and (especially) numeracy
whenever we plan for a metrication project. We can't simply assume
that everybody else has the highly developed personal literacy and
numeracy skills shown by the contributors to this list.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
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Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
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