Table 3. Logistic Regression Models Estimating Limited Health Literacy against the Newest Vital Sign
ModelDemographics OnlySILSBHLS
Difficulty with Written InformationConfidence Filling out Medical FormsHelp Reading Hospital Materials
PredictorsOR95% CI*P valueOR95% CI*P valueOR95% CI*P valueOR95% CI*P valueOR95% CI*P value
Age1.021.011.04<.011.021.011.04.011.021.011.04<.011.021.011.04<.011.021.011.04.01
Sex (reference = male)
    Female0.930.601.44.750.950.611.48.830.920.601.43.720.960.621.49.850.940.061.46.79
Race (reference = white)
    Black3.512.275.43<.013.502.255.45<.013.412.205.28<.013.412.205.29<.013.332.145.18<.01
Education (reference = high school)
    <High school2.061.034.130.041.680.823.44.151.970.983.97.061.840.973.73.061.750.863.57.12
    >High school0.400.250.62<.010.430.270.67<.010.420.270.67<.010.410.260.64<.010.440.280.67<.01
Difficulty with written information (SILS) (reference = rarely/never)
    Always/often/sometimes2.861.505.46<.01
Confidence filling out medical forms (SILS) (reference = quite a bit/extremely confident)
    Not at all/a little bit/ somewhat1.611.032.52.04
Help reading hospital materials (SILS) (reference = rarely/never)
    Always/often/sometimes1.801.083.00.02
BHLS0.850.78.94<.01
Goodness of fit statistics
R20.2030.2320.2140.2160.235
AIC534.75525.27532.29531.46524.15
AUROC0.7340.7490.7380.7410.749
  • * For 95% confidence interval (CI) values, the lower limit is set on the left and the upper limit is on the right.

  • AIC, Akaike information criterion; AUROC, area under the receiver operator characteristics curve; BHLS, Brief Health Literacy Screen; OR, odds ratio; SILS, Single Item Literacy Screener.