Quick Assessment of Literacy in Primary Care: The Newest Vital Sign

¹University of Arizona College of Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Tucson, Ariz
²College of Nursing, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz
³Department of Internal Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Barry D. Weiss, MD, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Arizona College of Medicine, 1450 North Cherry Ave, Tucson, AZ 85719, bdweiss{at}u.arizona.edu

A version of this report was presented at Medical Futures Forum, New York, NY. March 24, 2005.

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Figure 1A.
The newest vital sign — English.

Note; This single scenario is the final English version of the newest vital sign. The type size should be 14-point (as shown above) or larger. Patients are presented with the above scenario and asked the questions shown in Figure 1b⇓.
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Figure 1B.
Questions and answers score sheet for the newest vital sign — English.
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Figure 2.
Distribution of scores on the Newest Vital Signs (NVS) and the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA).

Note: Histograms on top show the distribution of participants’ scores on (A) the English version of the Newest Vital Sign (NVS-E) and (B) the English version of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA-E). Histograms on the bottom show the distribution of scores on (C) the Spanish version of the Newest Vital Sign (NVS-S) and (D) the Spanish version of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA-S).