News Feature | November 12, 2014

First Cancer Health Literacy Tool Introduced

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

ONC Pushes For Health IT Innovation With Startup “Challenge”

Researchers have developed the first and only tool that can accurately measure cancer health literacy (CHL) and quickly identify patients with limited CHL.

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Massey Cancer Center researchers have developed a new tool that can accurately measure cancer health literacy (CHL) and identify patients with limited CHL, according to a press release. The Massey tool will potentially improve communication and understanding between physicians and patients, and ultimately produce better clinical outcomes.

Developed over four years with 1,306 patients from Massey and surrounding oncology clinics, researchers were able to create an evaluation tool they dubbed the Cancer Health Literacy Test (CHT-6). The goal of the tool was “to measure cancer health literacy along a continuum,” the release explained. The results of the study were published by Taylor And Francis Online.

Using a touch-screen device, patients were asked to complete 30 questions regarding cancer treatment, medication and side effects, and other aspects of their disease and treatment. It included six questions specifically designed to single out individuals with limited CHL. According to the findings, 18 percent of cancer patients have limited CHL, particularly among African-American, undereducated and low-income patients.

“Using this tool, it takes just 1-2 minutes in the doctor’s office waiting room to identify patients with limited CHL. Then this information can be digitally communicated to the doctors prior to seeing the patients, so that they are prepared to talk with the patients in terms they can understand,” Levent Dumenci, Ph.D., the study’s lead researcher, member of the Cancer Prevention and Control research program at Massey and professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Health at the VCU School of Medicine said in the release. “This simple change could lead to big improvements in health outcomes.”

Health literacy is a crucial element in a patient’s overall health and healthcare outcomes. Measuring – and perhaps even improving – a patient's cancer health literacy prior to an office visit could potentially lead to improved clinical outcomes as a result of clearer communication.

“Before now, there were only instruments that measured a particular aspect of general health literacy. It is important to have a tool that is specific to cancer because of the complex treatment options that cancer patients face, along with the increased demand for self-care,” says Dumenci.