SynthesisJournal of biomedical informatics2012
Health literacy screening instruments for eHealth applications: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Journal of biomedical informatics, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 150 citations in OpenAlex.
- Determinants and outcomes of eHealth literacy in healthy adults: A systematic review.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- A systematic review of instruments to measure health literacy of patients in emergency departments.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Measurement of Digital Literacy Among Older Adults: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Generic health literacy measurement instruments for children and adolescents: a systematic review of the literature.BMC public health · 2018Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of the Prevalence and Associations of Limited Health Literacy in CKD.Clinical journal of the American Society of Nephrology : CJASN · 2017Pooled it
- Assessment of the wish to hasten death in patients with advanced disease: A systematic review of measurement instruments.Palliative medicine · 2017Pooled it
- A Remote Symptom Monitoring Tool As Part of Ambulatory Cancer Surgery Recovery: A Qualitative Analysis of Patient Experience.JCO oncology practice · 2023Trial
- Investigating the impact of patient-centred labels on comprehension of medication dosing: a randomised controlled trial.BMJ open · 2021Trial
- Canadian adaptation of the Newest Vital Sign©, a health literacy assessment tool.Public health nutrition · 2018Trial
- Parents' and caregivers' views on pediatric meningococcal disease and serogroup B vaccination.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- How Many Instruments Do We Need? Strengths, Weaknesses, and Potentials for Further Developments of Digital Health Literacy Measurement Instruments: Narrative Overview of Reviews and Content Analysis.Interactive journal of medical research · 2026Review
- From patients to partners: evaluating a co-designed website for congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism.Endocrine connections · 2026Article
- Association of Communication With Smoking Attitudes and Behaviors Among Patients Undergoing Lung Cancer Screening: A Longitudinal Cohort Study.CHEST pulmonary · 2025Article
- [Measuring health literacy: methods and tools for assessing general health literacy in adults].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2025Review
- Community-Engaged Development of Equitable and Scalable Mobile Health Tools for Tobacco Treatment: The Healthy Lungs Trial Experience.CHEST pulmonary · 2025Article
- The mediating role of health awareness in the relationship between health information behavior and health outcomes among the older adults.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- A narrative review of digital health literacy within cystic fibrosis telehealth: are we considering it?mHealth · 2025Review
- Successful Aging Across Middle Versus High-Income Countries: An Analysis of the Role of eHealth Literacy Associated With Loneliness and Well-Being.The Gerontologist · 2024Article
- Grandparents' pregnancy and neonatal loss network: Designing a website for grandparents bereaved by the perinatal loss of a grandchild.PEC innovation · 2023Article
- Structural Validation and Measurement Invariance Testing of the Chinese Version of the eHealth Literacy Scale Among Undergraduates: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo systematically review current health literacy (HL) instruments for use in consumer-facing and mobile health information technology screening and evaluation tools.
designThe databases, PubMed, OVID, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library and Science Citation Index, were searched for health literacy assessment instruments using the terms "health", "literacy", "computer-based," and "psychometrics". All instruments identified by this method were critically appraised according to their reported psychometric properties and clinical feasibility.
resultsEleven different health literacy instruments were found. Screening questions, such as asking a patient about his/her need for assistance in navigating health information, were evaluated in seven different studies and are promising for use as a valid, reliable, and feasible computer-based approach to identify patients that struggle with low health literacy. However, there was a lack of consistency in the types of screening questions proposed. There is also a lack of information regarding the psychometric properties of computer-based health literacy instruments. LIMITATIONS: Only English language health literacy assessment instruments were reviewed and analyzed.
conclusionsCurrent health literacy screening tools demonstrate varying benefits depending on the context of their use. In many cases, it seems that a single screening question may be a reliable, valid, and feasible means for establishing health literacy. A combination of screening questions that assess health literacy and technological literacy may enable tailoring eHealth applications to user needs. Further research should determine the best screening question(s) and the best synthesis of various instruments' content and methodologies for computer-based health literacy screening and assessment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.