Antibiotic use numeracy: Developing the infectious numeracy test (INT).

Area of Science:

• Health literacy
• Patient education
• Antibiotic stewardship

Background:

• Inadequate numeracy skills hinder patient comprehension of health information.
• A specific measure for numeracy related to antibiotic use was lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a numeracy measure for antibiotic use.
• To make the measure available in Arabic, considering the local context.

Main Methods:

• A survey was developed following best practices for scale development, translation, and validation.
• The survey included 10 open-ended numeracy questions contextualized to real-life scenarios.
• Face and content validity were established through expert review and cognitive debriefing; psychometric properties were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis.

Main Results:

• The study yielded a two-factor structure: "Mathematical knowledge and problem-solving skills" and "Numeracy-related practices and experience".
• The measure demonstrated acceptable reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.713).
• Higher numeracy scores correlated significantly with antibiotic knowledge and understanding of side effects/resistance; higher education and medical insurance were linked to better numeracy.

Conclusions:

• A valid and reliable measure for antibiotic numeracy was successfully created in English and Arabic.
• This tool can identify patients with low numeracy for targeted interventions and education on appropriate antibiotic use.