Can the Newest Vital Sign Be Used to Assess Health Literacy in Children and Adolescents?

Context. We evaluated the validity of the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) as a brief screen for health literacy in children. Objectives. To (a) test the hypothesis that child performance on the NVS correlates with performance on a test of child reading comprehension and (b) establish age-based cutoffs for e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical pediatrics 2014-02, Vol.53 (2), p.141-144
Main Authors: Warsh, Joel, Chari, Roopa, Badaczewski, Adam, Hossain, Jobayer, Sharif, Iman
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Age Factors
Child
Children & youth
Comprehension
Correlation analysis
Cross-Sectional Studies
Educational Measurement - methods
Female
Health Literacy - statistics & numerical data
Health Surveys
Humans
Literacy
Male
Reading
Reading comprehension
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Summary:Context. We evaluated the validity of the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) as a brief screen for health literacy in children. Objectives. To (a) test the hypothesis that child performance on the NVS correlates with performance on a test of child reading comprehension and (b) establish age-based cutoffs for expected performance on the NVS. Design. Children aged 7 to 17 years were administered the NVS followed by the Gray Silent Reading Test (GSRT). Results. The NVS score correlated strongly with GSRT score (ρ = 0.71, P < .0001) and increased with age. Children aged 7 to 9 years had a median NVS score of 1 (interquartile range = 1-2); children aged 10 to 17 years had a median score of 3 (interquartile range = 2-4), P < .0001. Conclusion. The NVS performs well in this population. Children aged 10 to 17 years with an NVS score lower than 2 may have low health literacy.
ISSN:0009-9228
1938-2707
DOI:10.1177/0009922813504025