An Adaptive Testing Model for Assessment of Numeracy in Patients

Abstract

Numeracy in healthcare domain is a measure of the ability of patients to understand and digest numerically presented information so as to make appropriate health decisions and understand the underlying risk factors. The existing methods of numeracy testing do not take confidence as a parameter in consideration for adaptive assessment. Numeracy assessment without confidence is prone to guess work. A better result in measurement is achieved when confidence in the knowledge is also appraised. More importantly, patients may act up on their knowledge when they have confidence in it. Thus we aim to develop a new model and based on it a Patient Numeracy Assessment (PNA) tool.