title: Use of nutrition literacy scale in elderly minority population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The major objective of our paper was to test and validate the nutritional literacy scale (NLS) in a pre-dominantly African-American geriatric population.
  
  
  METHODS
  Completion of the 2 literacy scales Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (STOHFLA) and nutritional literacy scale (NLS) during a 5-month period from September 2008 to January 2009.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Rosa Parks Geriatric Center at Detroit Medical Center/Wayne State University.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study cohort consisted of elderly (>65 years old) 150 patients that had presented to the geriatric clinic.
  
  
  METHODS
  NLS and STOHFLA were simultaneously given to the patients. The NLS consists of 28 questions regarding organic foods; calorie intake etc. and questions in each section were arranged from easier to more difficult ones. The baseline characteristics were stratified according to the NLS (< 25 and ≥ 25) and STOHFLA (< 35 and ≥ 35) scores. Additionally we also collected data on demographic information, educational experience, blood pressure recordings from 3 consecutive clinic visits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patients with a higher NLS score were younger (72 ± 9) as compared to those with lower NLS score (76 ± 9) (p = 0.005), and also had more years of education (16 ± 3 years v/s 13 ± 3 years; p <0.001). A higher proportion of patients with lower score on NLS had hypertension (95.10 % for NLS < 25 v/s 77.08 % for NLS > 25; p =0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We validated a potentially useful nutritional literacy tool that might prove to be useful intervention aimed at identifying individuals with lower levels of education and insight regarding their nutritional behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Pragnesh Patel M.D., 5C, University Health Center, 4201 St Antonie Rd, Detroit, MI, 48201.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Panaich
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Steinberg
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zalawadiya
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aranha
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cardozo
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D009752:Nutritional Status / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires