Health Numeracy Is Associated With a Patient's Ability to Interpret Patient-Reported Outcome Measures Data

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Patient Outcomes
• Medical Informatics

Background:

• Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are increasingly used in clinical settings.
• Patient health numeracy, the ability to understand health information, may influence PROM interpretation.
• Previous research highlights benefits of point-of-care PROMs but not numeracy's role.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between patient health numeracy and the ability to interpret patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).
• To assess how different visual displays of PROM data affect patient comprehension.
• To inform the optimal implementation of PROMs in clinical practice, particularly in orthopedics.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 49 patients from an outpatient orthopedic clinic.
• Administered a survey including demographics, the short-form General Health Numeracy Test, and accuracy questions on four PROM display formats (bar graph, table, line graph, pictograph).

Main Results:

• Higher health numeracy correlated with correct interpretation of PROM displays (P=.016).
• Patients preferring tables were less accurate in interpreting displays (OR=0.013, P=.024).
• Bar graphs and tables were most preferred; patients favored combined displays and verbal discussion for understanding PROM scores.

Conclusions:

• Patient health numeracy is crucial for accurately interpreting visual PROM data.
• Current point-of-care PROM implementation overlooks patient health numeracy.
• Addressing health numeracy in PROM use may enhance their effectiveness in improving orthopedic surgery outcomes.