AHRQ Releases Second Edition of Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit

The recently released AHRQ Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit, Second Edition can help primary care practices reduce the complexity of health care, increase patient understanding of health information and enhance support for patients of all health literacy levels. Only 12 percent of U.S. adults have the health literacy skills needed to manage the demands of our complex health care system, and their ability to absorb and use health information can be compromised by stress or illness. Experts recommend assuming that everyone may have difficulty understanding in order to create an environment in which all patients can thrive. As with blood safety, health professionals should take universal precautions to address health literacy because they can't know which patients are challenged by health care information and tasks at any given time. Additional tools for improving health literacy are located here: