Relationship Between Health Care Costs and Very Low Literacy Skills in a Medically Needy and Indigent Medicaid Population

Article Figures & Data

Table 1.

Characteristics of Subjects

Characteristic	Number	Percentage
Sex
Male	21	71.6
Female	53	28.4
Marital Status
Single	28	37.8
Divorced	23	31.1
Married	15	20.3
Widow(er)	8	10.8
Ethnicity
Hispanic	38	52.1
Anglo	27	37.0
Other	9	10.9
Employment Status
Unemployed	58	78.4
Working	16	21.6
Self-Assessment of Health^*
Excellent	5	6.8
Good	17	23.3
Fair	33	45.2
Poor	18	24.7
Language of Best Reading Skill
English	54	72.9
Spanish	20	27.0

Table 2.

Annual Health Care Charges for Medically Needy/Medically Indigent Subjects

* Calculation of mean charges included both subjects who did and whodid not incur charges.
** Low-literacy subjects had reading levels at or below the 3rd-grade level.
*** High-literacy subjects had reading skills at or above the 4th-grade level.