Health literacy and perceived health status in Latinos and African Americans.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the association between functional health literacy and physical and mental health status in a sample of Latinos and African Americans.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study that used a demographics questionnaire, the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA), the physical component summary (PCS-12) and mental component summary (MCS-12) scales of the SF-12, and the Charlson Comorbidity Index in a sample of 1301 Medicaid and/or Medicare Latino and African American adult patients at four community clinics and one university-based general medicine practice in Philadelphia.


RESULTS
When stratified by inadequate, marginal, and adequate functional health literacy levels and compared to SF-12 population norm scores of 50.0, the mean (standard deviation [SD]) PCS-12 scores were 38.8 (11.2), 38.5 (11.1), 42.7 (11.4), respectively (P < .0001); the mean (SD) MCS-12 scores were 43.3 (11.2), 43.5 (10.4), 44.3 (11.7), respectively (P = .39). After adjusting for sociodemographic confounders and Charlson Index score, functional health literacy was not significantly associated with physical or mental health status (P > .50 and P = .41, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
Functional health literacy is not independently associated with perceived physical health status or mental health status in a sample of ethnic minorities.
Guerra
Carmen E
CE
Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6021, USA. carmen.guerra@uphs.upenn.edu
Shea
Judy A
JA
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006304:Health Status; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015143:Philadelphia; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires