Asking patients whether they understand health information you've just provided on the spot isn't the best way to improve health literacy. A better approach, according to patient-experience expert Meryl Luallin, is to ask patients a question, such as, "What do you think of this plan?," as a way of uncovering any gaps in comprehension.
A new study published in the journal Surgery, however, suggests that the best time to assess patients' health literacy is upfront.
For the study, all patients seen at a Phoenix, Ariz., breast surgery clinic received an assessment tool called the Newest Vital Signs (NVS) during the course of their routine office visits, Reuters reported. To conduct the test, interviewers showed patients a nutrition label and asked them five questions about it in either English or Spanish. Fewer than four correct answers indicated possible limited health literacy. According to researchers, a total of 2,025 women took part in the study and 391 participants had scores of 4 or higher. Meanwhile, 1,229 women scored between 0 and 1, and 405 women had a score of 2 or 3.
Participants were also asked to rate their overall satisfaction with their visits on a scale of 1 to 5, both before and after the NVS was used. The average satisfaction rating the year before the study was 3.7. During the first year the assessments were used, the ranking rose to 3.8, and went up to 4.1 the second year, the study indicated.
"The main benefit of doing health literacy assessments is simply to make clinicians aware that there are patients with limited health literacy in their practice," said lead author Ian Komenaka of the Maricopa Medicine Center in Phoenix.
Nonetheless, Cindy Brach of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, told Reuters that physicians should not let strong literacy assessment scores lead them to become overconfident about how much patients actually understand about their particular medical information.
To learn more:
- read the article from Reuters
- here's the study