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Health Education Research: Will patients agree
to have their literacy skills assessed in clinical
practice?
If health providers are aware of their patients’ literacy skills, they can
more appropriately tailor their communication with patients. Few providers, however,
assess patient’s literacy skills for fear of offending patients, but no research
has ever determined if patients object to such assessments. Researchers from the
University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami-Dade County Health Department, University
of Arizona College of Medicine, and the Health Council of South Florida researched
what percentage of patients seen for routine healthcare would agree to undergo literacy
assessment using the Newest Vital Sign, and if satisfaction of patients differs
in practices that perform literacy assessments versus practices that do not. The
results were supportive of health literacy assessment. Of 289 patients asked to
undergo literacy assessment in the intervention practices, 284 (98.3%) agreed to
do so, including 125 (46.1%) with low or possibly low literacy skills. There was
no difference in satisfaction between the intervention group and the control group.
This research was published in the peer-reviewed journal, Health Education Research
(September 22, 2007).
Review Will patients
agree to have their literacy skills assessed in clinical practice?
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