Assessment and measurement of health literacy: An integrative review of the literature

Research linking health literacy to health knowledge, health behaviors, health outcomes, health disparity, health status, and increasing health-care costs is prevalent around the globe. Given the importance of health literacy, it is prudent to examine the tools available to assure that patients are health-literate. This article provides an integrative review in order to investigate what has been developed to evaluate health literacy in the health-care setting. The research questions considered include: (i) Which instruments or screening tools are available to assess or measure health literacy in the clinical setting?; and (ii) What are the psychometric properties, advantages, and limitations of the identified tools? A number of databases are utilized to locate research specific to this topic. The research is analyzed, the findings are summarized, and the limitations are mentioned. The implications, recommendations, and the need for future research are discussed.