Allison R. Dahlke|Laura M. Curtis|Alex D. Federman|Michael S. Wolf
The Mini Mental Status Exam as a Surrogate Measure of Health Literacy
Northwestern University|Northwestern University|Mount Sinai Hospital|Northwestern University
studies documented strong associations cognitive function health literacy skills health outcomes outcome performance may partially explained cognitive ability common cognitive assessments mini mental status exam mmse therefore may measuring latent construct existing health literacy toolswe evaluated potential mmse surrogate measure health literacy comparing convergent predictive validity three commonly used health literacy assessments education827 older adults recruited academic general internal medicine ambulatory care clinic one five federally qualified health centers chicago il nonenglish speakers severe cognitive impairment excludedpearson correlations completed test convergent validity mmse assessments health literacy education receiver operating characteristic roc curves statistic calculated determine optimal cut point mmse classifying participants limited health literacy multivariate logistic regression models completed measure predictive validity new mmse cut pointthe mmse found moderate high convergent validity existing health literacy measures roc statistic analyses suggested optimal cut point 27 mmse new threshold score found predict health outcomes least well better existing health literacy measures education alonethe mmse considerable face validity health literacy measure could easily administered healthcare setting research aim validate cut point examine constructs measured mmse literacy assessments