title: Reading comprehension of health checkup reports and health literacy in Japanese people.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the reading comprehension of health checkup reports in the context of health literacy (HL) in Japanese people.
  
  
  METHODS
  A web-based survey was conducted among 424 Japanese adults aged 35-59 years. Participants were asked to read specifically designed health checkup reports and then answer a series of questions to examine whether they accomplished the fundamental purposes of health checkup reports (recognition of the problems, recognition of the risk of illness, recognition of the need for preventive action, and motivation for preventive action). HL was simultaneously measured using the 14-item health literacy scale (HLS-14), the 11-item Lipkus scale (Lipkus-J), and the Newest Vital Sign (NVS-J).
  
  
  RESULTS
  About 70 % of the study subjects misread the normal/abnormal classification for at least one items. Those with lower HLS-14 scores were significantly less likely to recognize the problems, the risk of illness, and the need for preventive action for the examinee, and also less likely to express their willingness to take preventive action in compliance with the doctor's advice after having received the health checkup report. Compared with the HLS-14 scores, the Lipkus-J and NVS-J scores showed hardly any association with the reading comprehension of health checkup reports.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  All examinees do not always have an adequate level of HL. HL may be the major determinant of reading comprehension of health checkup reports. For more effective health checkups, health promotion service providers should become aware of the existence of examinees with inadequate HL and address the problem of misreading health checkup results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Environmental Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, suka@jikei.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Machi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suka
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Odajima
authors.forename: Masako
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sumitani
authors.forename: Takeo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sugimori
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D057220:Health Literacy; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011932:Reading