Quality of life, health status, and health service utilization related to a new measure of health literacy: FLIGHT/VIDAS.

OBJECTIVE Researchers have identified significant limitations in some currently used measures of health literacy. The purpose of this paper is to present data on the relation of health-related quality of life, health status, and health service utilization to performance on a new measure of health literacy in a nonpatient population. METHODS The new measure was administered to 475 English- and Spanish-speaking community-dwelling volunteers along with existing measures of health literacy and assessments of health-related quality of life, health status, and healthcare service utilization. Relations among measures were assessed via correlations and health status and utilization was tested across levels of health literacy using ANCOVA models. RESULTS The new health literacy measure is significantly related to existing measures of health literacy as well as to participants' health-related quality of life. Persons with lower levels of health literacy reported more health conditions, more frequent physical symptoms, and greater healthcare service utilization. CONCLUSION The new measure of health literacy is valid and shows relations to measures of conceptually related constructs such as quality of life and health behaviors. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS FLIGHT/VIDAS may be useful to researchers and clinicians interested in a computer administered and scored measure of health literacy.