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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Jolie N. Haun, MS, EdS¹, Patricia Donaldson, RN, MSN, CDE², and Mary Allen, MD, FACP². (1) Health Education and Behavior, University of Florida, 4100 SW 20th Avenue G-25, Gainesville, GA 32607, 904-377-6796, joliehaun@bellsouth.net, (2) Veteran Health Administration, 1601 SW Archer Rd, Gainesville, FL 32608

Background: The adverse outcomes associated with inadequate levels of health literacy affect one in three Americans and contribute to more than 50 billion dollars of unnecessary spending on healthcare annually. The average individual is unaware of the issues related to health literacy and any susceptibility they might have to low health literacy. Furthermore, individuals are unlikely to seek assistance whether or not they are aware of their need for assistance. Thus health care providers and health educators must take a proactive approach in identifying, assisting, and empowering individuals with inadequate health literacy as a standard clinical practice. Healthcare providers and clinicians need a quick and efficient means of identifying patients with literacy needs and ethically posting that information so healthcare teams can respond to individual health literacy needs when providing healthcare. Physicians and other clinicians can assume a role in the partnership of patient health education efforts with pro-active assessments and interventions that will ultimately save precious time and resources. Purpose: The premise of this research proposes the validation of a 4-item brief health literacy screening assessment will provide clinicians with an economical and efficient means for identifying patients with health literacy needs. The hypothesis of this research suggests the health literacy assessment will provide a reliable and valid indicator which can be posted in the patient file to alert clinicians; who can then tailor their clinical practice to meet the individual needs of patients. Methods: This investigation was conducted with 250 veteran participants presenting in an acute ambulatory setting. The quantitative protocol utilized two validated health literacy screening assessments (STOFHLA & REALM) to investigate the validity of the proposed 4-item screening tool. Results: Data and results will be available in July 2006.

Learning Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will be able to

(
• Identify the research that warrants the need for health literacy screening in the healthcare environment; (
• Discuss the quantitative protocol used to validate the brief 4-item health literacy screening tool; and (
• Discuss the results of the investigation and identify implications for clinical practice.

Keywords: Health Literacy, Quality of Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No