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Health numeracy: the importance of domain in assessing numeracy.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Levy, H; Ubel, PA; Dillard, AJ; Weir, DR; Fagerlin, A
Published in: Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making
January 2014

Existing research concludes that measures of general numeracy can be used to predict individuals' ability to assess health risks. We posit that the domain in which questions are posed affects the ability to perform mathematical tasks, raising the possibility of a separate construct of "health numeracy" that is distinct from general numeracy. The objective was to determine whether older adults' ability to perform simple math depends on domain.Community-based participants completed 4 math questions posed in 3 different domains: a health domain, a financial domain, and a pure math domain. Participants were 962 individuals aged 55 and older, representative of the community-dwelling US population over age 54.We found that respondents performed significantly worse when questions were posed in the health domain (54% correct) than in either the pure math domain (66% correct) or the financial domain (63% correct). Our experimental measure of numeracy consisted of only 4 questions, and it is possible that the apparent effect of domain is specific to the mathematical tasks that these questions require.These results suggest that health numeracy is strongly related to general numeracy but that the 2 constructs may not be the same. Further research is needed into how different aspects of general numeracy and health numeracy translate into actual medical decisions.

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Published In

Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making

DOI

EISSN

1552-681X

ISSN

0272-989X

Publication Date

January 2014

Volume

34

Issue

1

Start / End Page

107 / 115

Related Subject Headings

  • Task Performance and Analysis
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Self Efficacy
  • Middle Aged
  • Mathematics
  • Humans
  • Health Policy & Services
  • Aged
  • 4206 Public health
  • 4203 Health services and systems
 

Citation

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Levy, H., Ubel, P. A., Dillard, A. J., Weir, D. R., & Fagerlin, A. (2014). Health numeracy: the importance of domain in assessing numeracy. Medical Decision Making : An International Journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making, 34(1), 107–115. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989x13493144
Levy, Helen, Peter A. Ubel, Amanda J. Dillard, David R. Weir, and Angela Fagerlin. “Health numeracy: the importance of domain in assessing numeracy.Medical Decision Making : An International Journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making 34, no. 1 (January 2014): 107–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989x13493144.
Levy H, Ubel PA, Dillard AJ, Weir DR, Fagerlin A. Health numeracy: the importance of domain in assessing numeracy. Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making. 2014 Jan;34(1):107–15.
Levy, Helen, et al. “Health numeracy: the importance of domain in assessing numeracy.Medical Decision Making : An International Journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making, vol. 34, no. 1, Jan. 2014, pp. 107–15. Epmc, doi:10.1177/0272989x13493144.
Levy H, Ubel PA, Dillard AJ, Weir DR, Fagerlin A. Health numeracy: the importance of domain in assessing numeracy. Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making. 2014 Jan;34(1):107–115.
Journal cover image

Published In

Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making

DOI

EISSN

1552-681X

ISSN

0272-989X

Publication Date

January 2014

Volume

34

Issue

1

Start / End Page

107 / 115

Related Subject Headings

  • Task Performance and Analysis
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Self Efficacy
  • Middle Aged
  • Mathematics
  • Humans
  • Health Policy & Services
  • Aged
  • 4206 Public health
  • 4203 Health services and systems