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CHICAGO (AP) - Plenty of evidence suggests that having trouble understanding medical information is bad for your health. Now new research says it could even be deadly. A study of patients 65 and older found that those who couldn't understand basic written medical instructions were much more likely to die within six years than those who had no problems grasping the information.
The difference in the death rates remained substantial even when researchers considered differences in the patients' health at the outset.
Inability to understand medical information and instructions makes it hard to manage chronic illnesses from asthma to diabetes to heart disease, said lead author Dr. David Baker, chief of general internal medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.
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