Table 1
Factors Contributing to a Patient’s Ability to Use Quantitative Information for Health
| Factor | Definition | Examples |
| Patients’ quantitative skills | basic computational skills (such as addition, multiplication, and use of simple formulas), estimation, and statistical literacy | computing calorie content; comparing computation to estimate to determine whether it is correct; understanding concept of randomization in a clinical trial |
| Patients’ ability to use information artifacts | ability to navigate documents, interpret graphs, and translate between different representations of the same information | obtaining nutrient information from a nutrition label; comparing personal health data as displayed on different meters or devices |
| Patients’ oral communication skills | ability to speak clearly about quantities and understand spoken information | reporting a previous medication regimen accurately to a new physician |
| Information design for patients | arrangement of information media and symbols to support comprehension and cognition | designing a patient interface for an electronic health record that provides graphics to illustrate numerical information |
| Providers’ oral communication skills | ability to communicate quantitative concepts clearly to the patient | explaining a new medication regimen to a patient in an understandable fashion |
| Providers’ quantitative skills | basic computational skills, estimation, and statistical literacy | converting between units of measure; understanding the positive predictive power of a diagnostic test |
| Providers’ ability to use information artifacts | ability to navigate documents, interpret graphs, translate between representations of the same information | interpreting a graph of patient lab values over time; applying the numerical output of a decision support system to an individual case |
| Information design for providers | ability of a system or document to support the provider’s cognition | designing a provider interface that provides automated conversions between units of measure |
