More than meets the eye: relationship between low health literacy and poor vision in hospitalized patients

Patient-centered care includes involving patients and their families in self-management of chronic diseases. Identifying and addressing barriers to self-management, including those related to health literacy and vision limitations, may enhance one's ability to self-manage. A set of brief verbal screening questions (BVSQ) that does not rely on sufficient vision to assess health literacy was developed by Chew and colleagues in the outpatient setting. The authors aimed to evaluate the usefulness of this tool for hospitalized patients and to determine the prevalence of poor vision among inpatients. In a prospective study, the BVSQ and the Rapid Estimate of Adult Learning in Medicine-Revised (REALM-R; among participants with sufficient vision, ≥ 20/50 Snellen) were administered to general medicine inpatients. Of 893 participants, 79% were African American, and 57% were female; the mean age was 53 years. Among 668 participants who completed both tools, the proportion with low health literacy was 38% with the BVSQ versus 47% with the REALM-R (p = .0001). Almost one fourth of participants had insufficient vision; participants with insufficient vision were more likely to be identified as having low health literacy by the BVSQ, compared with those with sufficient vision (59% vs. 38%, p < .001).