HOW GOOD ARE WE WITH NUMBERS

Bandolier 103 featured a study that looked at literacy attain-ments in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Literacy is especially important because these patients often have complicated medication regimens. The study found that one patient in six would, at best, struggle with patient education material, and one in 20 could not read prescription labels. We now have some studies looking at numeracy, both in medical students and patients. But fi rst we need to have some understanding of what is numeracy. The dictionary defi nition is one of competence in mathematical skills to allow us to cope with everyday life, but also includes understanding mathematical terms from graphs, charts, or tables. Fortunately health numeracy has been provided with a set of defi nitions [1]. Various levels of health numeracy have been defi ned (Tabl