Table 1.

Participant Demographic Characteristics Overall and by Literacy Level (N = 449)

Characteristic	Total (N = 449)	Literacy Level
		Low (n = 63)	Marginal (n = 103)	Adequate (n = 283)	P value*
Age, %					<0.0001
18–30 years	20.3	2.2	16.5	81.3
31–45 years	30.5	12.4	21.9	65.7
46–60 years	31.2	24.3	27.1	48.6
61–85 years	18.0	12.4	24.7	63.0
Female, %	64.4	14.2	21.5	64.4	0.60
Race, %					<0.0001
White	35.2	1.9	7.0	91.1
Black	53.5	23.8	34.6	41.7
Other	11.4	5.9	17.7	76.5
Education, %					<0.0001
≤ High School	34.1	32.7	36.6	30.7
Some College	24.5	8.2	27.3	64.6
≥ College Grad	41.4	2.2	9.1	88.7
Income, %					<0.0001
<$20,000	34.8	31.0	35.9	33.1
$20,000–$50,000	22.5	7.5	20.2	72.3
>$50,000	42.7	3.4	12.4	84.3
Heard of Med Guide, %					0.14
Yes	33.9	11.8	21.7	66.5
No	62.6	16.0	24.2	59.8
Don’t Know	3.6	0.0	12.5	87.5
Prior Experience, %					0.01
No experience	52.1	12.8	18.0	69.2
Experience with ≥ 1 Med Guides	47.9	15.4	28.4	56.3

*p value for χ² tests of associations between literacy skills and patient characteristics