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. 2007 Sep-Oct:31 Suppl 1:S36-46.
doi: 10.5555/ajhb.2007.31.supp.S36.

Measuring adult literacy in health care: performance of the newest vital sign

Chandra Y Osborn  1 , Barry D Weiss, Terry C Davis, Silvia Skripkauskas, Christopher Rodrigue, Pat F Bass, Michael S Wolf
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Measuring adult literacy in health care: performance of the newest vital sign

Chandra Y Osborn et al. Am J Health Behav. 2007 Sep-Oct.

Abstract

Objective: To compare performance of the newest vital sign (NVS) with existing literacy measures.

Methods: We administered the NVS and REALM to 129 patients, and NVS and S-TOFHLA to 119 patients all in public clinics.

Results: The NVS demonstrated high sensitivity for detecting limited literacy and moderate specificity (area under the receiver operating characteristic [AUROC] curve 0.71-0.73). The NVS was less effective than the S-TOFHLA for predicting health outcomes.

Conclusion: The NVS is able to identify patients with limited literacy skills, but may misclassify those with adequate literacy according to the REALM and S-TOFHLA. NVS scores were not associated with health outcomes.

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