Advance directive form for low-literacy patients
An advance directive form designed for the estimated 90 million American adults who read below the fifth-grade level has been released by the Institute for Healthcare Advancement (www.iha4health.org). Advance directives, the legal documents that allow individuals to make their personal health care wishes known before serious illness or injury occurs, are "often intimidating and hard to understand, even for those who have adequate reading skills," according to Rebecca Sudore, MD, the University of California at San Francisco physician who developed the form.
The free, on-line document was created through extensive consumer testing and designed in a simple, fill-in-the-blank format with illustrations and easy-to-read bullet points. Also available in Spanish, the form enables low-literacy Americans to choose an agent to make medical decisions for them, make their health care wishes known to loved ones, and provide the necessary signatures to make the document legally binding.
An advance directive form designed for the estimated 90 million American adults who read below the fifth-grade level has been released by the Institute for Healthcare Advancement.
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