{"id":15908,"date":"2017-10-02T18:47:57","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T18:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/pnr\/?p=15908"},"modified":"2026-02-03T17:24:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T17:24:42","slug":"making-sense-of-the-numbers-health-numeracy-and-you-and-me","status":"archive","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/making-sense-of-the-numbers-health-numeracy-and-you-and-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Sense of the Numbers\u2014Health Numeracy and You (and Me)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is the first in our \u201cHealth Literacy Month\u201d series happening this month, October 2017<\/em><\/p>\n

As health care becomes more sophisticated and complex, it\u2019s more and more likely that we will face situations where we have to use numerical skills to figure out our own treatment choices.\u00a0 Our capacity to deal with the numerical component of health information is called \u201chealth numeracy\u201d and it\u2019s akin to health literacy, but is not the same thing (people can have high literacy and low numeracy, and you can\u2019t tell by looking what a person\u2019s numeracy level is!).\u00a0\u00a0 The challenges relating to numeracy are many, and can defeat even people (including health care providers) with the best intentions.\u00a0 According to an article in The New York Times<\/em><\/a>, one study found that almost 85% of parents gave their children the wrong dose of liquid cough medicine, and of those wrong doses, 68% were overdoses.\u00a0 Scary!<\/p>\n

So, now, want to learn more?<\/p>\n

First, consider attending a FREE online health numeracy class<\/a>, \u201cMaking Sense of Numbers: Understanding Risks and Benefits, and Learning How to Communicate Health Statistics<\/strong>\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s by the NNLM\u2019s own Michelle Burda, and it\u2019s a great overview of the topic, and some ways to think about numerical aspects of health.<\/p>\n

Second, if you want an overview of how to work with people who may have numeracy challenges, check out this article<\/a> (coincidentally, by me, and starting on page 28), \u201cSafety in Numbers: Helping People with Health Numeracy Challenges (Which is All of Us)<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Third, we can talk about best practices around numeracy all we want, but what happens when you are a numeracy expert and yet are faced with your own health challenge which requires you to calculate risks and future possibilities?\u00a0 You will find that it\u2019s not ALL about the numbers!\u00a0 Listen here<\/a>, to the moving story of Professor Brian Zikmund-Fisher.<\/p>\n

And last but not least, take a look at a great tool developed by Dr. Zikmund-Fisher.\u00a0 It\u2019s called IconArray<\/a><\/strong> (and there\u2019s a clinician-focused version too!).\u00a0 If you are wanting to show what a certain percentage, or risk, looks like (to anyone, not just someone you think may have limited numeracy!) it takes 30 seconds with this great tool–see the screenshot below.<\/p>\n

Do you have any numeracy-related tips or tricks that you want to share?\u00a0 Please enter them in the comments\u2014we\u2019re all in this together!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is the first in our \u201cHealth Literacy Month\u201d series happening this month, October 2017 As health care becomes more sophisticated and complex, it\u2019s more and more likely that we will face situations where we have to use numerical skills to figure out our own treatment choices.\u00a0 Our capacity to deal with the numerical… Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,5],"tags":[57,62,63],"class_list":["post-15908","post","type-post","status-archive","format-standard","hentry","category-k-12","category-training-education","tag-health-literacy","tag-health-numeracy","tag-iconarray"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15908"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15911,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15908\/revisions\/15911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.nnlm.gov\/region_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}