title: Asthma numeracy skill and health literacy.
abstract: To assess understanding of numerical concepts in asthma self-management instructions, a 4-item Asthma Numeracy Questionnaire (ANQ) was developed and read to 73 adults with persistent asthma. Participants completed the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (STOFHLA), 12(16%) answered all 4 numeracy items correctly; 6(8%) answered none correctly. Participants were least likely to understand items involving risk and percentages. Low numeracy but not STOFHLA score was associated with a history of hospitalization for asthma. At higher STOFHLA levels there was a wide range of the total number of correct numeracy responses. Numeracy is a unique and important component of health literacy.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary, Allergy Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. apter@mail.med.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Andrea J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Apter
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Dylan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Small
authors.forename: Ian M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Albert
authors.forename: Daniel G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Fein
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: George
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Van Horne
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008875:Middle Aged; D012648:Self Care; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires