Can Patients Interpret Health Information? An Assessment of the Medical Data Interpretation Test

Lisa M. Schwartz, Steven Woloshin and H. Gilbert Welch
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Lisa M. Schwartz: VA Outcomes Group, White River Junction, VT, and the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH, Lisa.Schwartz@Dartmouth.edu
Steven Woloshin: VA Outcomes Group, White River Junction, VT, and the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH
H. Gilbert Welch: VA Outcomes Group, White River Junction, VT, and the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH

Medical Decision Making, 2005, vol. 25, issue 3, 290-300

Abstract: Objective . To establish the reliability/validity of an 18-item test of patients’ medical data interpretation skills. Design . Survey with retest after 2 weeks. Subjects . 178 people recruited from advertisements in local newspapers, an outpatient clinic, and a hospital open house. Results . The percentage of correct answers to individual items ranged from 20% to 87%, and medical data interpretation test scores (on a 0- 100 scale) were normally distributed (median 61.1, mean 61.0, range 6-94). Reliability was good (test-retest correlation = 0.67, Cronbach’s alpha = 0.71). Construct validity was supported in several ways. Higher scores were found among people with highest versus lowest numeracy (71 v. 36 , P

Keywords: numeracy; decision making; patient education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:medema:v:25:y:2005:i:3:p:290-300

DOI: 10.1177/0272989X05276860

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