Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Can this patient read and understand written health information?

Publication ,  Journal Article
Powers, BJ; Trinh, JV; Bosworth, HB
Published in: JAMA
July 7, 2010

CONTEXT: Patients with limited literacy are at higher risk for poor health outcomes; however, physicians' perceptions are inaccurate for identifying these patients. OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the accuracy of brief instruments for identifying patients with limited literacy. DATA SOURCES: Search of the English-language literature from 1969 through February 2010 using PubMed, Psychinfo, and bibliographies of selected manuscripts for articles on health literacy, numeracy, reading ability, and reading skill. STUDY SELECTION: Prospective studies including adult patients 18 years or older that evaluated a brief instrument for identifying limited literacy in a health care setting compared with an accepted literacy reference standard. DATA EXTRACTION: Studies were evaluated independently by 2 reviewers who each abstracted information and assigned an overall quality rating. Disagreements were adjudicated by a third reviewer. DATA SYNTHESIS: Ten studies using 6 different instruments met inclusion criteria. Among multi-item measures, the Newest Vital Sign (English) performed moderately well for identifying limited literacy based on 3 studies. Among the single-item questions, asking about a patient's use of a surrogate reader, confidence filling out medical forms, and self-rated reading ability performed moderately well in identifying patients with inadequate or marginal literacy. Asking a patient, "How confident are you in filling out medical forms by yourself?" is associated with a summary likelihood ratio (LR) for limited literacy of 5.0 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.8-6.4) for an answer of "a little confident" or "not at all confident"; a summary LR of 2.2 (95% CI, 1.5-3.3) for "somewhat confident"; and a summary LR of 0.44 (95% CI, 0.24-0.82) for "quite a bit" or "extremely confident." CONCLUSION: Several single-item questions, including use of a surrogate reader and confidence with medical forms, were moderately effective for quickly identifying patients with limited literacy.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

JAMA

DOI

EISSN

1538-3598

Publication Date

July 7, 2010

Volume

304

Issue

1

Start / End Page

76 / 84

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Self Care
  • Reference Values
  • Psychometrics
  • Physician-Patient Relations
  • Humans
  • Health Literacy
  • General & Internal Medicine
  • Forms and Records Control
  • Educational Status
  • 42 Health sciences
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Powers, B. J., Trinh, J. V., & Bosworth, H. B. (2010). Can this patient read and understand written health information? JAMA, 304(1), 76–84. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.896
Powers, Benjamin J., Jane V. Trinh, and Hayden B. Bosworth. “Can this patient read and understand written health information?JAMA 304, no. 1 (July 7, 2010): 76–84. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.896.
Powers BJ, Trinh JV, Bosworth HB. Can this patient read and understand written health information? JAMA. 2010 Jul 7;304(1):76–84.
Powers, Benjamin J., et al. “Can this patient read and understand written health information?JAMA, vol. 304, no. 1, July 2010, pp. 76–84. Pubmed, doi:10.1001/jama.2010.896.
Powers BJ, Trinh JV, Bosworth HB. Can this patient read and understand written health information? JAMA. 2010 Jul 7;304(1):76–84.
Journal cover image

Published In

JAMA

DOI

EISSN

1538-3598

Publication Date

July 7, 2010

Volume

304

Issue

1

Start / End Page

76 / 84

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Self Care
  • Reference Values
  • Psychometrics
  • Physician-Patient Relations
  • Humans
  • Health Literacy
  • General & Internal Medicine
  • Forms and Records Control
  • Educational Status
  • 42 Health sciences