Tools for Use in Health Literacy Practice

Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA). Parker RM, Baker DW, Williams MV, et al. The test of functional health literacy in adults: a new instrument for measuring patients' literacy skills. J Gen Intern Med 1995; 10:537-41. This article describes the TOFHLA which assesses reading comprehension of health information by asking subjects to read passages in which every 5-7 words are omitted and the subject has to select a correct word from among four word choices. This instrument also involves subject responding to specific questions from a sample of health instructions.

Other tools such as the Fry tool for measuring reading level of materials are found in Doak, Doak & Root, 1996 cited above.