Orthopaedic surgeons have traditionally been considered poor communicators, a paradigm that is quickly changing with the shift to the patient-centric model 1 . Effective communication with patients can directly result in better patient satisfaction, adherence, and outcomes, as well as lower malpractice litigation rates for the surgeon. In the same vein, a patient's health literacy plays an equally important role in the ecosystem of health care.The definition of health literacy has evolved over time, cumulating in multiple governmental organizations (e.g., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], and the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion [ODPHP]) agreeing on the term: the degree to which individuals have or organizations equitably enable "the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others 2 ." This ability is based on several domains comprised of individual aspects of health literacy, including reading and/or listening comprehension, numeracy (calculating measurements or dosages), digital health literacy, self-advocacy, oral communication, health-care navigation, health-care forms and/or documentation, medications, and critical thinking and decision-making 3 . Low health literacy in medicine and surgery has been directly linked to increased health-care costs, higher surgical complication rates, higher mortality, and worse patient-reported outcomes [4][5][6][7][8] .Health literacy in orthopaedics is not well studied, but the studies that have been performed have directly correlated it with positive patient outcomes in aspects such as less pain and better function, better treatment adherence, and greater satisfaction 9-12 . Roh et al. reported on health literacy assessed using the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) screening tool in patients with acute mallet finger injuries; they found that lower health liter-Disclosure: The Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest forms are provided with the online version of the article (http://links.lww.com/JBJS/I71).
