title: Health Literacy Among People with Serious Mental Illness.
abstract: People diagnosed with a mental illness are at higher risk of developing preventable chronic diseases; thus, health literacy improvements may have great potential to impact health outcomes for this typically underserved population. However, there is a dearth of research on health literacy of persons with severe mental illness. The purpose of this research was to investigate aspects of health literacy and identify factors associated with low literacy among adults with severe mental illness using three literacy assessment tools. Seventy-one adults with serious mental illness were assessed and a high proportion had limited literacy levels: 42% with the Single Item Literacy Screener, 50% with the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine-Short Form, and 67% with the Newest Vital Sign. Findings suggest that individuals with certain mental illnesses and lower functioning may have more difficulty understanding health information and have limited numerical literacy.
authors.affiliation: Division of Public Health, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, 220 South 17th Street, Lincoln, NE, 68509, USA.
authors.forename: Whitney
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Clausen
authors.affiliation: College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 984355 Medical Center, Omaha, NE, 68198, USA. swatanabe@unmc.edu.
authors.forename: Shinobu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watanabe-Galloway
authors.affiliation: Community Alliance, 4001 Leavenworth Street, Omaha, NE, 68105, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bill Baerentzen
authors.affiliation: College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 984355 Medical Center, Omaha, NE, 68198, USA.
authors.forename: Denise H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Britigan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D057220:Health Literacy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: Community setting; Health literacy; Newest Vital Sign (NVS); Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine-Short form (REALM-SF); Severe mental illness; Single Item Literacy Screener (SILS)