Can the Newest Vital Sign be used to assess health literacy in children and adolescents?
BACKGROUND
We evaluated the validity of the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) as a brief screen for health literacy in children.


OBJECTIVE
To (a) test the hypothesis that child performance on the NVS correlates with performance on a test of child reading comprehension and (b) establish age-based cutoffs for expected performance on the NVS.


METHODS
Children aged 7 to 17 years were administered the NVS followed by the Gray Silent Reading Test (GSRT).


RESULTS
The NVS score correlated strongly with GSRT score (ρ = 0.71, P < .0001) and increased with age. Children aged 7 to 9 years had a median NVS score of 1 (interquartile range = 1-2); children aged 10 to 17 years had a median score of 3 (interquartile range = 2-4), P < .0001.


CONCLUSIONS
The NVS performs well in this population. Children aged 10 to 17 years with an NVS score lower than 2 may have low health literacy.
1Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Joel
J
Warsh
Roopa
R
Chari
Adam
A
Badaczewski
Jobayer
J
Hossain
Iman
I
Sharif
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D032882:Comprehension; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D057220:Health Literacy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading
Newest Vital Sign; child literacy; health literacy; pediatric