Testing the utility of the newest vital sign (NVS) health literacy assessment tool in older African-American patients.

Objective: To evaluate utility of the newest vital sign (NVS) which can be completed in 3min compared to the short version test of functional literacy in adults (S-TOFHLA) that takes 7min for health literacy in the older African American patients.

Methods: We enrolled 62 older (age>65 years) African American patients and administered the NVS and the S-TOFHLA. A score of less than 4 for the NVS and less than 16 for the S-TOFHLA was indicative of limited health literacy.