ArticleJournal of general internal medicine2018
Examining the Interrelations Among Objective and Subjective Health Literacy and Numeracy and Their Associations with Health Knowledge.
Article in Journal of general internal medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Health literacy and medication adherence in adults from ethnic minority backgrounds with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Health Literacy in Pregnant Women: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Health Literacy and Outcomes Among Patients With Heart Failure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JACC. Heart failure · 2020Pooled it
- Large Language Model-Based Simplification of Digital Therapeutics Explanations for Insomnia and Nicotine Dependence: Two Randomized Online Experiments.JMIR human factors · 2026Trial
- Health Literacy by Hispanic Ethnicity and its Association with Healthcare Experiences, Self-rated Health, and Quality of Life.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Article
- Examining the Factor Structure of Objective Health Literacy and Numeracy Scales: Large-Scale Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2026Article
- Article
- Assessing health literacy and diversity within the All of Us Research Program.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2025Article
- Article
- An objective and subjective health literacy analysis among heart transplant recipients.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Structural Determinants of Health Literacy Among Formerly Incarcerated Individuals: Insights From the Survey of Racism and Public Health.Health literacy research and practice · 2025Article
- Breast cancer treatment receipt and the role of financial stress, health literacy, and numeracy among diverse breast cancer survivors.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2023Article
- Comparison of Newest Vital Sign and Brief Health Literacy Screen scores in a large, urban Hispanic cohort.Patient education and counseling · 2023Article
- Changes in the health literacy of residents aged 15-69 years in central China: A three-round cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Effect of linguistic framing and information provision on attitudes towards induced seismicity and seismicity regulation.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Health Literacy, Education, and Internal Consistency of Psychological Scales.Health literacy research and practice · 2021Article
- Article
- Using the Short Graph Literacy Scale to Predict Precursors of Health Behavior Change.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2019Article
- Beyond High-Income Countries: Low Numeracy Is Associated with Older Adult Age around the World.MDM policy & practiceArticle
- How Do Subjective Health Literacy Measures Work in Young Adults? Specifying "Online" or "Paper-Based" Forms Impacts Results.MDM policy & practiceArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundHealth literacy and numeracy influence many health-related behaviors and outcomes. Health literacy and numeracy have been assessed objectively and subjectively, but interrelationships among the measures and the consistency of their association with health knowledge have not been examined.
objectiveTo increase understanding of the structure and interrelations among objective and subjective health literacy and numeracy and how these constructs relate to knowledge of risk factors of two major diseases.
designSecondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data, weighted to be representative of the general US population of non-institutionalized adults.
participantsParticipants (N = 1005, 55.2% response rate) were recruited from GfK KnowledgePanel. The unweighted sample included 52% women, 26% racial/ethnic minorities, and 37% with no college experience. MAIN MEASURES: Objective health literacy, subjective health literacy, objective numeracy, subjective numeracy. Objective and perceived knowledge of diabetes and colon cancer risk factors were also assessed. KEY
resultsConfirmatory factor analyses indicated that a model with correlated (r = 0.16-0.56) but separate factors for each of the four literacy/numeracy constructs best fit the data (RMSEA = 0.055 (95% CI 0.049-0.061), CFI = 0.94). Consistency between measures in classifying people as having adequate or limited health literacy or numeracy was 60.9-77.1%, depending on the combination of measures. All four literacy/numeracy constructs were independently associated with objective diabetes knowledge and objective colon cancer knowledge (all ps < .04). Subjective (but not objective) literacy and numeracy measures were associated with diabetes perceived knowledge (all ps < .02). No literacy/numeracy measures were associated with perceived colon cancer knowledge.
conclusionsWe identified objective and subjective health literacy and numeracy as four distinct but related concepts. We also found that each construct accounts for unique variance in objective (but not subjective) disease knowledge. Until research uncovers what psychological processes drive subjective measures (e.g., motivation, self-efficacy), research investigating the relationship between health literacy and health outcomes should consider assessing all four measures.
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