Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Efficiency in scale design reduces respondent burden. A brief but reliable measure of numeracy may provide a useful research tool eligible for integration into large epidemiological studies or clinical trials. Our goal was to validate a 3-item version of the Subjective Numeracy Scale (SNS-3). DESIGN AND SETTING: We examined 7 separate cross-sectional data sets: patients in the emergency department (n = 208), clinic (n = 205), and hospital (n = 460; n = 2053) and patients with chronic kidney disease (n = 147), with diabetes (n = 318), and on hemodialysis (n = 143). MEASUREMENTS: Internal reliability of the SNS-3 was assessed with Cronbach's α. Criterion validity was determined by nonparametric correlations of the SNS-3 with SNS-8 and other measures of numeracy; construct validity was determined by correlations with measures of health literacy and education. RESULTS: The SNS-3 had good internal reliability (median Cronbach's α = 0.78) and correlated highly with the full SNS (median ρ = 0.91). The SNS-3 was significantly correlated with other measures of numeracy (e.g., median ρ = 0.57 with the Wide Range Achievement Test 4), health literacy (e.g., median ρ = 0.35 with the Shortened Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults), and education (median ρ = 0.41), providing good evidence of criterion and construct validity. CONCLUSION: The SNS-3 is sufficiently reliable and valid to be used as a measure of subjective numeracy.
Source: Medical Decision Making
Institution: Vanderbilt University
Language: English
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Services Research and Development, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Awards: Public-Private Partnership Addressing Literacy-Numeracy to Improve Diabetes Care, G2759730755, Brief Assessment of Health Literacy and Association with Cardiovascular Outcomes, Facilitating Anemia Treatment Risk Communication for Patients with Kidney Disease, Predicting Acute Brain Dysfunction in Older Patients: A Quality Improvement Tool, Addressing Literacy and Numeracy in Self-care & Clinical Outcomes in ESRD, The Vanderbilt Emergency Medicine Research Training Program (VEMRT), G6988210397, The Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR), Vanderbilt Center for Diabetes Translation Research, Health Literacy, Hospital Discharge, and Cardiovascular Outcomes, G9000033427
OpenAlex ID: W2096550605