title: A shortened instrument for literacy screening.
abstract: The Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM-R), a new 8-item instrument designed to rapidly screen patients for potential health literacy problems, was administered to 157 patients. The REALM-R was correlated with Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised (WRAT-R) (.64) and demonstrated a Cronbach's alpha of 0.91. The REALM-R identified 26 of 30 persons scoring more than 1 standard deviation below the mean on the WRAT-R, corresponding to a sixth grade reading level. The REALM-R identified a substantial number of people who scored poorly on the WRAT-R, and depending on further studies of validity and reliability, may offer a practical approach to identify patients at risk for health literacy problems in a clinical setting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, Shreveport, LA 71130-3932, USA. pbassi@lsuhsc.edu
authors.forename: Pat F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Bass
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Charles H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Griffith
mesh_terms: D004522:Educational Status; D006801:Humans; D007629:Kentucky; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011932:Reading; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric