Prevalence of Limited Health Literacy Among Irish Adults

Figures & data

Table 1. Health literacy categories according to three screening tools

	Health literacy category
Health literacy assessment	Limited	Adequate
REALM	0–60	61–66
S-TOFHLA	0–66	67–100
NVS	0–3	4–6

Table 2. Characteristics of study sample, by study and site

		Study 1
Characteristic	All participants (N = 1,759)	Community (n = 261)	Hospital (n = 1,078)	Study 2 Hospital (n = 420)
Age, %
18–30 years	18.3	36.4	17.4	9.1
31–45 years	27.8	29.5	30.1	21.0
46–60 years	31.0	23.4	28.6	42.1
>60 years	22.9	10.7	23.9	27.9
Female, %	61.2	64.0	60.4	61.7
Education, %
Primary/during secondary	19.0	8.4	20.5	21.7
Junior/intermediate certificate	19.3	10.7	19.3	24.8
Leaving certificate/postcourse	35.8	25.7	37.9	36.4
Third level (degree/postgrad)	25.9	55.2	22.3	17.1

Table 3. Screening questions, by literacy level

	Study 1 (n = 1,339)						Study 2 (n = 420)
	NVS			REALM			REALM			S-TOFHLA
	Limited 57.2% ^a	Adequate 42.8% ^a	p	Limited 18.4% ^a	Adequate 81.5% ^a	p	Limited 21.9% ^a	Adequate 78.1% ^a	p	Limited 14.1% ^a	Adequate 85.9% ^a	p
Are medical forms difficult to fill out?	45.5	29.3	<.001	55.3	34.7	<.001	58.7	42.1	.01	45.8	45.7	.99
Are medical booklets or leaflets difficult to understand?	33.8	20.3	<.001	42.7	24.7	<.001	48.9	31.7	.002	35.6	35.5	.98
Are instructions on tablets from the chemist hard to understand?	13.1	9.4	.04	15.9	10.5	.02	14.1	11.6	.51	13.6	11.9	.72
Do you ever need help to read information or filling in forms from doctors, nurses or hospitals?	25.2	13.8	<.001	41.7	15.5	<.001	38.0	19.2	<.001	33.9	21.6	.04