Table 1.

Percentage of Correct Responses by Third-Year Pharmacy Students to Health Literacy Knowledge Statements (N = 76)

Pretest and Posttest Questions (N = 76)	Correct Answer	Pretest	Posttest	P
Health literacy refers only to a person's ability to read.	False	100	100	NA^b
Years of schooling are a good estimate of a person's reading level.	False	53.9	93.4	<0.01^c
Adequate health literacy means the ability to read, understand, and process health information.	True	96.1	100	0.25
People will tell you if they cannot read.	False	97.4	100	0.5
Family members of people with low literacy usually know about their low literacy.	False	82.9	77.6	0.48
People with low health literacy usually identify medications by the name on the bottle. (n = 75)	False	88	93.4	0.42
People with low health literacy are more likely to misinterpret medication instructions provided on prescription labels.	True	97.4	100	0.5
People with low health literacy know what their medicationsare for.	False	90.9	97.4	0.12
Often people with low health literacy will bring family members along when talking to healthcare professionals.	True	68.4	90.8	<0.01
When given material to read, low literacy patients will give excuses to avoid reading health information materials.	True	92.1	100	<0.05
Persons with low health literacy can be found in all segments of society.	True	97.4	100	0.5
Age is a significant risk factor for developing poorliteracy.	True	47.4	80.3	<0.01
People with high education and income levels are not at risk for developing low health literacy.	False	94.7	98.7	0.38
People with low literacy are usually compliant with their medications.	False	98.7	100	NA^b
Patients with low health literacy have ___ health outcomes than patients with adequate health literacy.	Worse	98.7	98.7	NA^b
What % of the US has limited health literacy?	30–39%	42.1	65.8	0.14^a
Most people with low health literacy have ___ IQs.	Average	55.3	88.2	<0.01
The average American reads at or below the ______ grade level.	8th–9th	30.3	46.1	0.15^a
Most written health information for patients is written at the ____ grade level.	10th grade	19.7	43.4	<0.01^a
When counseling patients with low health literacy, a pharmacist should: Use simple language, Use open-ended questions, Have patients repeat back instructions. All of the above	All of the above.	100	97.4	0.5
Overall		77.57	88.56

↵a Wilcoxon signed rank test for paired samples performed.
↵b McNemar test could not be performed because pretest and posttest variables were not dichotomous.
↵c Significant difference.