Canadian health literacy found low

TORONTO, March 4 (UPI) -- Fewer than half of Canadians possess skills to make them literate about their medical conditions, a study published Tuesday said.

The Canadian Public Health Association survey found the ability to access, understand and use health information was found in fewer than half of the unpublished number of respondents questioned, which concluded the situation was "critical."

Irving Rootman, executive director of the Health and Learning Center at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, and the study's co-author, wrote recent immigrants, people with low incomes and low levels of education and limited skills in English or French were the most health illiterate, the report said.

He said more worrying is that just 1-in-8 seniors has health literacy and they are the most likely group to have chronic health problems such as diabetes.

Citing a separate study by the University of Victoria, Rootman said a minimum of Grade 11 reading skills was required to understand most Internet information in Canada, the United States and Australia.

"Most Web sites aren't written for people who don't have adequate literacy skills," he wrote.