Health Literacy Instrument in Family Medicine: The "Newest Vital Sign" Ease of Use and Correlates

Abstract

Background: Health literacy has been defined as the ability to obtain, process, and understand the basic information needed to make appropriate health decisions. Half of adults lack the health literacy skills needed for our complex health care environment. In 2005, Weiss et al introduced the Newest Vital Sign (NVS), an instrument that can be used to quickly assess health literacy. The purpose of this study was to determine the acceptability and timeliness of using the NVS to measure the level of health literacy in various suburban, urban, and rural primary care settings. A secondary purpose was to determine the influence of taking a health class on one's level of health literacy.Methods: In this cross-sectional design, adults were recruited from 4 primary care settings and student athletes were recruited during preparticipation sports physicals. The NVS was administered and health literacy rates were compared with known trends. A subset of 50 patients was timed during test administration, and refusals were logged throughout. The adults and the athletes were analyzed separately.Results: One thousand fourteen patients (including athletes) agreed to participate (response rate, 97.5%). Average time needed to complete the NVS was 2.63 minutes. Of the adults tested, 48.1% demonstrated adequate health literacy. In logistic regression analysis, younger age, more formal education, health class participation, and body mass index were positive predictors of adequate health literacy among adults.

Analysis of health literacy instruments which could be used on a primary healthcare level

“…Primena ovog instrumenta koji je prilagođeniji mlađoj populaciji, pokazala je da je ovim testom moguće identifikovati pacijente sa niskom zdravstvenom pismenošću koji imaju viši nivo obrazovanja. Stoga je, iako kratak, podesan za brzu identifikaciju pacijenata sa niskom zdravstvenom pismenošću nego procenom samo na osnovu demografskih podataka (12,13).…”

Heart Failure and Low Health Literacy: Mitigating This Lethal Combination

“…[30][31][32] Whether you agree or not, to the degree that health literacy represents a clinical marker with potentially lethal implications, it can legitimately be considered a highly relevant clinical sign.…”

Key Questions and Technology in Clinical Practice

“…Health literacy is higher among those with more education, but unfortunately we cannot presume that even college graduates have good health literacy. Shah et al 5 report on the use of a health literacy assessment instrument that takes Ͻ3 minutes, although that still seems like a lot of time in a busy office. The good news is that previously taking a health education class was associated with better health literacy, and this offers a potential solution.…”