Capsule Commentary on Wallston et al., Psychometric Properties of the Brief Health Literacy Screen in Clinical Practice

Excerpt

The patient’s degree of health literacy is emerging as important for clinicians to understand and address. However, health literacy has mostly been studied for research purposes and the instruments administered by trained research assistants. Wallston et al.1 examined the psychometric properties of the Brief Health Literacy Screen (BHLS) as a nurse-administered tool to measure health literacy among adults in both inpatient and primary care populations compared to administration by a research assistant (RA). In addition, RA’s administered a reference measure, the short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA). The authors found evidence of inter-rater reliability between the nurse and research assistant measures of the BHLS in both samples. They also found that the BHLS was a significant predictor of the S-TOFHLA after adjustment for several demographic factors. The authors conclude that the BHLS, when administered by nurses during routine clinical care, is a valid and reliable measure of health literacy. …