Abstract
BackgroundLimited health literacy (HL) and numeracy have been shown to be associated with a wide array of poor health-related outcomes, knowledge, and behaviors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical utility of brief HL and numeracy screening items in identifying Spanish-speaking adults’ HL and numeracy skills.MethodsWe studied convenience samples of native Spanish-speaking adults in Columbus, Ohio. A trained research assistant administered sociodemographic items, HL and numeracy screening items, Short Assessment of Health Literacy (SAHL), and Newest Vital Sign (NVS) to participants in Spanish.ResultsParticipants (n = 151) averaged 36.8 ± 11.0 years of age and 54.7 % were female. Average SAHL score was 15.7 ± 2.8 (range = 4 to 18), while the average NVS score was 1.7 ± 1.5 (range = 0 to 6). “How confident are you filling out medical forms by yourself?” performed best in detecting limited NVS scores (AUROC = 0.66; 95 % confidence interval [CI] = 0.57–0.75), limited/marginal NVS scores (AUROC = 0.75; 95 % CI = 0.65–0.84), and inadequate SAHL scores (AUROC = 0.69; 95 % CI = 0.58–0.79).ConclusionA single HL screening item is useful for quickly estimating HL and numeracy skills in native Spanish-speaking adults.
Highlights
Limited health literacy (HL) and numeracy have been shown to be associated with a wide array of poor health-related outcomes, knowledge, and behaviors
Newest Vital Sign (NVS) and Short Assessment of Health Literacy (SAHL) scores were weakly correlated with one another [37]
The HL screening item, “How confident are you filling out medical forms by yourself?”, performed best in detecting limited NVS scores (AUROC = 0.75; 95 % CI = 0.65–0.84), limited/marginal NVS scores (AUROC = 0.66; 95 % confidence interval [CI] = 0.57–0.75), and inadequate SAHL scores (AUROC = 0.69; 95 % CI = 0.58–0.79)
Summary
Limited health literacy (HL) and numeracy have been shown to be associated with a wide array of poor health-related outcomes, knowledge, and behaviors. A growing body of literature documents the strong association of limited HL and numeracy with a wide array of poor healthrelated outcomes, knowledge, and behaviors [2]. Recognizing that it is often difficult for clinicians to identify patients at risk of limited HL based the conversation exchange during clinical encounters [12,13,14], shorter HL assessment tools such as the Short Assessment of Health Literacy (SAHL) [15], Newest Vital Sign (NVS) [16], and Communicative, Functional, Critical Health Literacy scales [17, 18] could, potentially, be useful in busy clinical settings to gauge a patient’s HL skills. The NVS—which can be administered in less than three minutes [19, 20]—is perhaps one of the most feasible HL assessment tools for use in routine clinical practice
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