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. 2003 Dec;18(12):1036-8.
doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2003.10651.x.

A shortened instrument for literacy screening

Pat F Bass 3rd  1 , John F Wilson, Charles H Griffith
Affiliations

A shortened instrument for literacy screening

Pat F Bass 3rd et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2003 Dec.

Abstract

The Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM-R), a new 8-item instrument designed to rapidly screen patients for potential health literacy problems, was administered to 157 patients. The REALM-R was correlated with Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised (WRAT-R) (.64) and demonstrated a Cronbach's alpha of 0.91. The REALM-R identified 26 of 30 persons scoring more than 1 standard deviation below the mean on the WRAT-R, corresponding to a sixth grade reading level. The REALM-R identified a substantial number of people who scored poorly on the WRAT-R, and depending on further studies of validity and reliability, may offer a practical approach to identify patients at risk for health literacy problems in a clinical setting.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Plot of reduced realm scores with WRAT scores.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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