Health literacy in Toronto : applying the TOFHLA to identify the gap between physician and patient

Abstract

This study takes a modern approach applying the TOFHLA to Torontonians in order to identify some of the contributing factors impacting the physician-patient divide. The TOFHLA questionnaire with added customized pre-screening questions was administered to 100 participants who were directly approached, further using a snowball sampling method. The Test of Functional Health Literacy Assessment (TOFHLA) is used to assess a patient’s level of comprehension of health-related material. The TOFHLA was validated by researchers Baker and Parker et al. in two separate studies in 1995 and 1999. This study has proven that age, gender, and English as a first or second language has no effect on health literacy level (P>0.05), education (P=0.024) was the main variable involved with positive health literacy levels. This study has successfully outlined areas of improvement such as, patient experience and engagement which influences recovery time.