Predicting Limited Health Literacy in Probability and Convenience Samples of ED Patients

Abstract

Health literacy is the "capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.” More than 90 million US adults possess limited health literacy, and are at risk for increased emergency department (ED) usage, prolonged hospitalizations, increased health care costs and medication noncompliance. Risk factors for limited health literacy include advanced age, lower educational background, lower socioeconomic status, and non-Caucasian ethnicity. Recent studies have demonstrated that up to 25% of urban ED patients possess limited health literacy skills. We sought to determine the prevalence of limited health literacy among patients in an urban ED and its association with sociodemographic variables. We also sought to assess differences in findings across probability (random) and convenience (non-random) samples, in order to estimate the importance of the logistically more difficult probability sampling technique.