Samuel G. Smith|Laura M. Curtis|Rachel O’Conor|Alex D. Federman|Michael S. Wolf
ABCs or 123s? The independent contributions of literacy and numeracy skills on health task performance among older adults
Queen Mary University of London|Northwestern University|Northwestern University|Northwestern University|Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai|Northwestern University
investigate relationship literacy numeracy association health task performanceolder adults n304 completed commonly used measures literacy numeracy single factor literacy numeracy scores calculated used predict performance established set health selfmanagement tasks including responding spoken information ii comprehension print iii multimedia information iv organizing dosing medication total subscale scores calculatedliteracy numeracy measures highly correlated rs068 ps0001 multivariable models adjusted age gender race education comorbidity lower literacy 044 p0001 numeracy 044 p0001 independently associated worse overall task performance subscales literacy range 023045 ps0001 numeracy range 031041 ps0001 multivariable analyses constructs entered explained variance overall health task performance compared separate literacy numeracy models 82 10 respectively ps0001literacy numeracy highly correlated independent predictors health task performance skill sets complementary important health selfmanagementselfmanagement interventions may effective consider literacy numeracy skills rather focusing one specific ability