Reading health brochures. Calculating timing or dosage of medicine. Comprehending a doctor's instructions regarding a drug or procedure. A great deal of health information contains complex information that may be difficult to understand. When people have continual trouble understanding health information, do they lose interest in their own health care?

That question and many others will be tested by MSM researchers, thanks to a two-year, $250,000 grant from Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change, a National Program Office of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. MSM is one of 11 organizations selected for funding out of 178 submitted proposals.

Beginning January 2007, MSM's Department of Family Medicine and Cardiovascular Institute, in collaboration with Kennesaw State University, will research whether clinical screenings for health literacy improve quality of care and reduce disparities, specifically as it relates to hypertension.

"It is critical that physicians assess how much a patient already knows about their condition," says Verna L. Welch, Ph.D., M.P.H., director of the Cardiovascular Health Research Program at MSM and principal investigator of the grant. "The level of patient understanding and physician communication skills can reveal how the health care will unfold and how interested or involved the patient will be."

Health literacy levels are determined by how well individuals obtain, process, and understand basic information and services regarding their health. The elderly, poor and new immigrants are more likely to endure low health literacy, which often leads to failed disease management and low usage of prevention services.

"Health literacy is not only about reading, writing and math; it is about empowerment," says Welch. "With higher literacy, patients know what questions to ask and how to follow their physician's instructions. When patients understand better, they are less frustrated and become active participants in their own health care, resulting in reduced disparities, enhanced health care, and lower health care costs."

Finding Answers will evaluate MSM's research findings and inform health care stakeholders - doctors, hospitals and health plans - about promising interventions that demonstrate a potential to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care.