BACKGROUND Refugees have poorer health compared to indigenous populations, which may be explained by lower health literacy, i.e. not being able to access, understand, appraise or apply health information. This study aims to determine levels of functional and comprehensive health literacy, and factors associated with inadequate health literacy, in refugees coming to Sweden. METHOD A cross-sect...

BACKGROUND Although reading ability may impact educational strategies and management of heart failure (HF), the prevalence of limited literacy in patients with HF is unknown. METHODS Subjects were drawn from the Vermont Diabetes Information System Field Survey, a cross-sectional study of adults with diabetes in primary care. Participants' self-reported characteristics were subjected to logist...

Studies have shown that a single-item question might be useful in identifying patients with limited health literacy. However, the utility of the approach has not been studied in patients receiving maintenance peritoneal dialysis (PD). We assessed health literacy in a cohort of 31 PD patients by administering the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) and a single-item health liter...

PURPOSE Current health literacy screening instruments for health care settings are either too long for routine use or available only in English. Our objective was to develop a quick and accurate screening test for limited literacy available in English and Spanish. METHODS We administered candidate items for the new instrument and also the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) ...

Health Literacy Online: A Guide to Writing and Designing Easy-to-Use Health Web Sites is a practical and well-written resource for public health and health communication professionals and web designers. This guide builds on the principles of web usability and adds to existing best practices by providing research-based strategies for writing and designing health websites especially for users wit...

OBJECTIVES To determine the relationship between health literacy, demographics, and access to health care. DESIGN Cross-sectional study, Health, Aging and Body Composition data (1999/2000). SETTING Memphis, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. PARTICIPANTS Two thousand five hundred twelve black and white community-dwelling older people who were well functioning at baseline (without fu...

Background Technology-delivered interventions have the potential to improve diabetes self-care and glycemic control among adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, patients who do not engage with interventions may not reap benefits, and there is little evidence on how engagement with mobile health interventions varies by health literacy status. Objective This study explored how patients wit...

The review of health literacy and its impact on older adults by Amalraj and colleagues in this issue of ONCOLOGY brings much-needed attention to this very critical issue. The impact of limited health literacy is made even more critical given the increasing number of older adults in the United States, estimated to be 20% of the US population by the year 2030, and the fact that limited health lit...

BACKGROUND Health literacy refers to people's competencies to access, understand, judge and apply health information in healthcare, disease prevention and health promotion. This study aimed to describe the level of health literacy and the factors associated with it among school teachers in an Education Zone in Colombo, Sri Lanka. METHODS A cross-sectional study among 520 teachers measured hea...