Doctors are famous for the illegibility of their handwriting - but for as many as 500,000 adults even the most clearly printed instruction on a packet of tablets presents difficulties.
The figure, presented in a report on health and literacy to be published as part of National Literacy Awareness Week, seems astonishingly high. Yet it is in line with an OECD survey which concluded, two years ago, that some 25 per cent of Irish adults are functionally illiterate and approximately another 20 per cent can perform only simple reading and writing tasks. That survey placed Ireland 14th out of 22 States as regards literacy.
An example of "functional illiteracy", the OECD report points out, is an inability to read the instructions on the back of a medicine bottle. That is dangerous enough - the National Adult Literacy Agency gives the example of a person suffering an adverse reaction to a combination of paracetamol and another medicine due to an inability to read the warning not to combine the two. A greater danger, though, comes from the embarrassment which can prevent an illiterate person from seeking the treatment they need. Embarrassment and illiteracy go together - people who cannot read or write learn to conceal the fact and can do so successfully for a long time. Unfortunately, that need to conceal can put them off from going to the hospital, the GP or the pharmacy.
Those of us who can read perfectly well find it difficult enough to find our way in hospitals. Imagine the difficulties of finding one's way through a maze of corridors without being able to read any of the signs.Even the most helpful instructions from a porter are just not enough in the confusing environment of the hospital. Similarly, health promotion relies heavily on the written word on posters, in leaflets and in newspapers. All those words are lost on the person who is illiterate. How much does this contribute to the fact that poorer people often have unhealthy lifestyles relative to those who are better off? The report recommends that a national health literacy board be established to report to the Department of Health and Children on the issue. It is a recommendation which deserves to be taken seriously.