The results of this review expand our understanding of the relationship between health literacy and health outcomes in several ways. First, a majority of studies included in this review performed multivariate analysis, allowing us to make better estimates of the true effect of health literacy on health outcomes. Second, new studies have addressed the relationship between numeracy level and health outcomes. This allows a better understanding of what it means to be health literate. Third, we identified a limited body of research that begins to identify variables that may be on a causal pathway between health literacy and health outcomes
