A Reliable Instrument of Health Literacy in Hospitalized Patients: 3-Question Brief Health Literacy Screen (BHLS)

IntroductionHealth literacy is generally defined as the ability and motivation of individuals to access, understand and use basic health knowledge. Some studies showed that low health literacy is associated with longer average length of stay in hospital and less effective utilization of health care. AimThe purpose of this was to compare the health literacy levels of patients with Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA), Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) and 3-Question Brief Health Literacy Screen (BHLS). MethodIn this study, individuals who were hospitalized comprised of 103 (42.9%) men and 137 (57.1%) women patients, ranged from 18 to 64 years (44.9±13.75 years). In this study, S-TOFHLA, REALM and BHLS were used to determine patients’ health literacy. Questions on socio-demographic characteristics were also included. ResultsA total of 240 patients were recruited for the study. On the S-TOFHLA, 65% of the patients had adequate health literacy. On the REALM, 50.4% o...