Journal article
Evaluation of instruments to assess health literacy in Arabic language among Iraqis
Research in social and administrative pharmacy, Vol.11(6), pp.803-813
11/2015
DOI: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2015.02.002
PMID: 25800139
Abstract
Low health literacy is associated with lack of medical information, less use of preventive measures, low medication adherence rates, high health care costs and high risk of hospitalization.
The aims were to compare the results of the three health literacy tests, to measure for the first time the health literacy level of Iraqis, to describe the use of standardized health literacy tests, to evaluate reliability and validity of the Arabic versions of these tests, and to investigate whether there is relationship between the participant characteristics and the health literacy level.
A convenience sample of 95 subjects was studied in five community pharmacies in Al-Najaf and Babylon governorates, Iraq. Three health literacy tests, the Single Item Literacy Screener (SILS), the New Vital Sign (NVS) and the Short version of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA), were translated in the Arabic language and administered to the pharmacy customers.
There were no statistically significant associations between age, gender, education and current education status and NVS score, but there were significant positive associations between the level of education and each one of SILS, New SILS, and S-TOFHLA scores.
SILS has one subjective, possibly culturally biased question. Since Iraqis are generally not exposed to reading product labels, the NVS test might be not an accurate measure for them. S-TOFHLA was the most comprehensive test and gave equitable results. The Arabic version of S-TOFHLA can be used to measure health literacy in 22 Arabic speaking countries.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Evaluation of instruments to assess health literacy in Arabic language among Iraqis
- Creators
- Ali Azeez Al-Jumaili - University of Iowa, College of Pharmacy, Iowa City, IA, USAMohammed Dakhil Al-Rekabi - University of Kufa, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Najaf, IraqBernard Sorofman - University of Iowa, College of Pharmacy, Iowa City, IA, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Research in social and administrative pharmacy, Vol.11(6), pp.803-813
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.sapharm.2015.02.002
- PMID
- 25800139
- ISSN
- 1551-7411
- eISSN
- 1934-8150
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/2015
- Academic Unit
- Pharmacy Practice and Science
- Record Identifier
- 9984154422202771
Metrics
15 Record Views