Of Special Note |
Health Literacy Component Trend. It is not possible to establish a health literacy trend between the 1992 NALS and 2003 NAAL because (1) NALS only had 6 health-related questions and (2) only 2 of these were reused in 2003. Two common questions are not enough to establish a health literacy trend between the two assessments. However, the 2003 NAAL provides enough questions for establishing trend with future assessments. |
The health literacy score derives from respondents’ performance on 28 health-related questions that are embedded in the main NAAL assessment booklets.
Since each health-related question can be classified as both a health task and a prose, document, or quantitative task, NAAL analysts include NAAL health literacy component data to calculate the prose, document, and quantitative (PDQ) literacy scale scores. However, NAAL also generates a separate, health literacy score, because the knowledge and skills required to perform a health literacy task, though related, are not the same as those required for general literacy tasks.