title: Literacy and comprehension of Beck Depression Inventory response alternatives.
abstract: This study explored the relationship of literacy level to comprehension of response alternatives from the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Twenty-nine adult basic education students, 14 senior citizens, and 20 oncology patients were given a brief literacy assessment and a comprehension test of selected BDI response alternatives. Three raters with clinical experience assessed comprehension. Lower literacy was significantly associated with less comprehension, even when other factors were controlled, yet comprehension problems were still found among higher literacy groups. The percent of participants who correctly paraphrased the selected BDI response alternatives ranged from 0 to 60%. These preliminary results suggest that poor comprehension of mental health measures is not only prevalent, but also cannot be estimated from patients' education or assessed reading levels.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. tetines@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Tetine L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Sentell
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ratcliff-Baird
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D032882:Comprehension; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States