Children and Adolescents Who Are at RiskParental Understanding of Infant Health Information: Health Literacy, Numeracy, and the Parental Health Literacy Activities Test (PHLAT)
Section snippets
Methods
A cross-sectional study was performed at pediatric clinics at 3 academic institutions to examine caregiver literacy and numeracy skills related to the understanding of common health tasks in caring for infants, and to validate the PHLAT. The institutional review boards for all 3 institutions approved the study. All participants provided informed consent and were given a nominal reimbursement for their time.
Results
From September 2006 through October 2007, a total of 413 eligible caregivers were referred, of which 261 consented (63%) and 182 participated (70% of those consenting and 44% of those initially referred). The primary reason for nonparticipation was lack of time because recruitment occurred in a busy clinical setting. Baseline characteristics are presented in Table 1. Participants had similar characteristics to the families that seek care in our clinics, except that we excluded Spanish-speaking
Discussion
It is concerning that this study found that many caregivers had difficulty understanding basic health information for the care of infants. For example, 1 in 4 could not properly prepare doses of prescription medication or read a digital thermometer, half could not properly prepare doses of OTC medication or understand a growth chart, and more than 3 in 4 could not understand a commonly used breastfeeding brochure. The PHLAT demonstrated excellent reliability and construct validity, suggesting
Acknowledgments
We thank Matthew Oettinger and Steven Pattishall for their help with recruitment. We thank Graham Gipson for graphic design assistance with Table 2. Dr Rothman is currently supported by an NIDDK Career Development Award (NIDDK 5K23 DK065294). Dr Perrin is currently supported by an NICHD career development award (NICHD K23 HD051817). Dr Sanders's work on this study was supported in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Scholars Program. This research was also supported with
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