Abstract
BackgroundHealth literacy (HL) is an important public health issue. Current measures have drawbacks in length and/or acceptability. The US-developed Newest Vital Sign (NVS) health literacy instrument measures both reading comprehension and numeracy skills using a nutrition label, takes 3 minutes to administer, and has proven to be acceptable to research subjects. This study aimed to amend and validate it for the UK population.MethodsWe used a three-stage process; (1) a Delphi study with academic and clinical experts to amend the NVS label to reflect UK nutrition labeling (2) community-based cognitive testing to assess and improve ease of understanding and acceptability of the test (3) validation of the NVS-UK against an accepted standard test of health literacy, the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) (Pearson’s r and the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve) and participant educational level. A sample size calculation indicated that 250 participants would be required. Inclusion criteria were age 18–75 years and ability to converse in English. We excluded people working in the health field and those with impaired vision or inability to undertake the interview due to cognitive impairment or inability to converse in English.ResultsIn the Delphi study, 28 experts reached consensus (3 cycles). Cognitive testing (80 participants) yielded an instrument that needed no further refinement. Validation testing (337 participants) showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.74). Validation against the TOFHLA demonstrated a Pearson’s r of 0.49 and an area under the ROC curve of 0.81.ConclusionsThe NVS-UK is a valid measure of HL. Its acceptability and ease of application makes it an ideal tool for use in the UK. It has potential uses in public health research including epidemiological surveys and randomized controlled trials, and in enabling practitioners to tailor care to patient need.
Highlights
Health literacy (HL) is an important public health issue
Modifying the original Newest Vital Sign (NVS) to develop the NVS-UK The NVS nutrition label was adapted to conform to current UK food labeling practice and the questions were converted from used on the original (US)- to UK-style English
We asked these experts to assess nutrition labels used in the UK, to compare their content and layout to the nutrition label used on the original (US) version of the NVS, and to suggest modifications of the original NVS nutrition label to make it concordant with UK nutrition labels
Summary
Health literacy (HL) is an important public health issue. Current measures have drawbacks in length and/or acceptability. Health literacy (HL) is defined as ‘the cognitive and social skills that determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use information in ways that promote and maintain good health’ [1,2]. It is recognised as an important cause of health inequalities in industrialised nations such as the UK, US, Canada, and Australia [2,3,4,5,6]. Low HL is associated with limited participation in screening for diseases, limited understanding of one’s illness or treatment plan, difficulties managing a chronic conditions such as diabetes mellitus, coronary health disease, heart failure, and asthma, poorer overall health status [5,9,10,11,12,13,14] and increased mortality [15]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
