Health literacy conference: measures & references - conceptualising and conceptual frameworks

Keynote 2 was delivered by Prof. Richard Osborne - What is the purpose of measuring health literacy: changing people, places or policy?

Overall the conference helped me by explaining some of the main tools including this presentation:

• REALM - Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine
• TOFHLA - Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults
• Newest Vital Sign

Prof. Osborne mentioned the following resources:

DeWalt, D.A., et al. (2004) Literacy and Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review of the Literature, Journal of General Internal Medicine. 19,12,1228–123.

Jordan, J.E., Osborne, R.H., Buchbinder, R. (2010) Critical appraisal of health literacy indices revealed variable underlying constructs, narrow content and psychometric weaknesse, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 64, 4, April 2011, 366-37. (I located this on Science Direct)

A quick look at Jordan et al. shows that the full size table outlining the measures is very informative.

Table 2 - Selected results of critical appraisal of indices that directly test patient abilities 

- includes the question:

Is the instrument based on an underlying conceptual framework?

I am also a little dizzy with the repeated mention of domains

- but seriously this is why I believe h2cm definitely has a role here.

Here's another reference (the last of 72 listed) I've just downloaded and look forward to reading:

Jordan, J.E., Buchbinder, R., Osborne, R.H. (2010) Conceptualising health literacy from the patient perspective, Patient Education and Counseling, 79, 36–42.

Presentations from the conference will be available in due course.