Quality of Work Life of Independent vs. Employed Family Physicians in Wisconsin: A WReN Study
By John W. Beasley, M.D., et al
A PROMISING NEW TOOL FOR MEASURING LITERACY IN PRIMARY CARE
With as many as half of all American adults lacking the literacy skills required to function adequately in the health care environment, clinicians are in need of a tool that can rapidly assess patients' literacy. Following rigorous evaluation, this study finds that a new screening tool, the Newest Vital Sign (NVS), holds promise for use in the busy primary care setting. A brief, six-question assessment based on the ability to read and apply information from a nutrition label, NVS was found to be a reliable and accurate measure of literacy. The NVS has advantages over currently available instruments, which are either too long for routine use or are available only in English. The NVS is the first literacy screen available in both English and Spanish, and it NVS can be administered in an average of only three minutes. The authors assert that these advantages, combined with the instrument's high consistency and validity, make NVS very appealing for use in primary care settings.
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Contact: Angela Sharma
asharma@aafp.org
913-906-6253
American Academy of Family Physicians
6-Dec-2005