Table 2.

Delayed/foregone care, by low vs. adequate health literacy status

	Health literacy
	Low	Adequate	p value
Fraction of participants who reported delaying or not obtaining care…
…for any reason	31.86%	22.98%	<0.001
…because of cost	12.77%	7.99%	<0.001
…for a reason other than cost	26.19%	18.32%	<0.001
Among those who delayed or did not obtain care, the fraction who reported each of the following reasons:
Could not afford it	40.09%	34.75%	0.091
I am too busy to go to the doctor	10.61%	24.34%	<0.001
I don’t like going to the doctor	27.84%	22.82%	0.153
I couldn’t get an appointment soon enough	18.62%	19.38%	0.790
I am afraid of what I might find out	14.37%	9.41%	0.040
Once I get there, I have to wait too long	17.63%	10.99%	0.005
I didn’t have transportation	16.88%	6.21%	<0.001
The clinic wasn’t open when I could get there	5.84%	6.42%	0.690
I couldn’t get through on the telephone	8.77%	7.22%	0.413
I don’t believe in going to doctors	2.98%	2.97%	0.988
Unweighted n: all participants	1,921	5,221
Unweighted n: participants reporting delayed/foregone care	590	1,146

Notes. Percentages are weighted. The p value reported in the final column is associated with a test of the null hypothesis that the outcome reported in that row is the same for individuals with low versus adequate health literacy.