A Shortened Instrument for Literacy Screening

Pat F. Bass, John F. Wilson, Charles H. Griffith

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

296 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM-R), a new 8-item instrument designed to rapidly screen patients for potential health literacy problems, was administered to 157 patients. The REALM-R was correlated with Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised (WRAT-R) (.64) and demonstrated a Cronbach's α of 0.91. The REALM-R identified 26 of 30 persons scoring more than 1 standard deviation below the mean on the WRAT-R, corresponding to a sixth grade reading level. The REALM-R identified a substantial number of people who scored poorly on the WRAT-R, and depending on further studies of validity and reliability, may offer a practical approach to identify patients at risk for health literacy problems in a clinical setting.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1036-1038
Number of pages3
JournalJournal of General Internal Medicine
Volume18
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2003

Keywords

  • Health literacy
  • Reading level
  • Screening

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Internal Medicine

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