Estimating health literacy in family medicine clinics in metropolitan Detroit: a MetroNet study

Abstract

Objective: Assessing health literacy during the clinical encounter is difficult. Many established instruments are lengthy and not practical for use in a busy practice setting. Our objective was to compare the performance of 3 health literacy screening questions against the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy for Adults (S-TOFHLA) in an urban, ethnically diverse primary care practice-based research network.

Methods: A convenience sample of patients in clinics in the Detroit area were recruited to complete a questionnaire that included the S-TOFHLA and 3 items similar to the Chew screening questions. Area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curves compared the test characteristics of the screening questions to the S-TOFHLA.

Results: The participation rate was 92% (N = 599). Most participants were women (65%) and African American (51%); 51.8% had a household annual income of <$20,000. Almost all (96.7%) had an adequate score on the S-TOFHLA. The screening question with the largest AUROC (0.83; 95% CI, 0.70-0.95) was "How often do you have someone help you read instructions, pamphlets or other written materials from your doctor or pharmacy?"; the AUROC for all 3 questions was 0.90 (95% CI, 0.85-0.95).

Conclusions: Self-administration of the 3 screening questions demonstrated high performance compared with the 36-item S-TOFHLA interview instrument. These screening questions should help providers identify patients who may need extra support to follow health prescriptions.

Keywords: Health Literacy; Primary Health Care; Urban Health Services.