Health literacy screening tools to identify patients at risk of misunderstanding wound care instructions after dermatologic surgery.

To the Editor: The National Assessment of Health Literacy found that only 12% of 19,000 US adults have “proficient” health literacy. 1 ME K. Greenberg E. Jin Y. Paulsen C. The Health Literacy of America’s Adults: Results From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy. U.S Department of Education (NCES 2006–483). 2006 Google Scholar The adverse consequences of low health literacy are well described in patients with chronic illnesses. 2 Puente-Maestu L. Calle M. Rodríguez-Hermosa J.L. et al. Health literacy and health outcomes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Respir Med. 2016; 115: 78-82https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2016.04.016 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (50) Google Scholar In contrast, only 16% of health literacy studies with surgical patients evaluate the consequences of low health literacy, while the other 84% focus solely on the prevalence of low health literacy. 3 Chang M.E. Baker S.J. Dos Santos Marques I.C. et al. Health literacy in surgery. HLRP Health Lit Res Pract. 2020; 4: e46-e65https://doi.org/10.3928/24748307-20191121-01 Crossref PubMed Scopus (36) Google Scholar This study aimed to elucidate the relationship between health literacy and understanding of postoperative instructions in patients undergoing Mohs micrographic surgery, as a proxy for dermatological procedure patients at large. Furthermore, we sought to determine if a single-item literacy screener (SILS) adequately predicts decreased understanding of postoperative instructions.