News in brief - April 11, 2011

Report names top health literacy trouble spots - Fewer drug reps mean shorter visits with physicians

Report names top health literacy trouble spots

Patients with poor reading skills also have poor health outcomes, according to a systematic review of medical literature published in March by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/evidence/pdf/literacy/literacyup.pdf).

Medical studies have linked low health literacy to lower influenza vaccination rates, worse medication adherence, underuse of mammography, more trips to emergency departments and higher hospitalization rates, according to the agency's review. The report showed that 42 studies of interventions to reduce health literacy risks found that evidence was "low or insufficient."

More than 75 million adults who speak English are estimated to have poor health literacy, the agency said, meaning they have trouble understanding information regarding their medical care. Last year, the Dept. of Health and Human Services launched an initiative to simplify how physicians and other health professionals communicate with patients to reduce the dangers associated with poor health literacy.

Fewer drug reps mean shorter visits with physicians

Drugmakers continued to cut their pharmaceutical sales forces last year, and the amount of time the remaining drug reps are spending with physicians has fallen since 2006, according to a March report by SK&A, a physician profiling firm.

The country's top 10 drugmakers cut their drug rep sales forces by 14% from 2009 to 2010, according to the SK&A's "2010 Sales Rep Visits and Product Detailing Report." Though 28% of detailer visits to internists ended in less than five minutes in 2006, that figure rose to 43% in 2010. Among specialists, the proportion of drug rep visits done within five minutes jumped from 15% to 31%. Sampling also fell. Among physicians categorized as "nonprescribers" of a drug, the percentage who did not take samples or brochures rose from 27% in 2006 to 40% in 2010.

The data are based on an ongoing survey of 2,480 physicians and other health professionals.