RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 How Long Does It Take to Assess Literacy Skills in Clinical Practice?
JF The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine
JO J Am Board Fam Med
FD American Board of Family Medicine
SP 211
OP 214
DO 10.3122/jabfm.2008.03.070217
VO 21
IS 3
A1 Kristen Johnson
A1 Barry D. Weiss
YR 2008
UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/21/3/211.abstract
AB Background: Health literacy screening is often not performed in clinical settings. One possible reason is the concern about the time involved in performing such assessments. Our objective was to measure the time required to administer the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) literacy assessment instrument to English-speaking primary care patients.Methods: The NVS was administered to 78 consecutive English-speaking patients in an outpatient primary care clinic. The length of time to complete the NVS was timed with a stopwatch.Results: The average time to complete the NVS was 2.9 minutes (95% confidence limit, 2.6–3.1 min).Conclusion: The NVS is a health literacy screening tool of sufficient brevity to be considered for use in primary care practices.