Defining and identifying laboratory literacy as a component of health literacy: An assessment of existing health literacy tools

Health literacy has been defined and studied as an important component of a patient's ability to understand and obtain appropriate healthcare. However, a laboratory component of health literacy, as it pertains to the understanding of laboratory tests and their results, has not been previously defined. An analysis of readily available health literacy tools was conducted to determine laboratory testing-specific content representation. One hundred and four health literacy tools from a publicly available database were analyzed. Many of the health literacy tools were found to be lacking items related to laboratory testing. Of the health literacy tools that did contain a laboratory component, they were categorized pertaining to the laboratory test/testing content. Emerging from this process, eight competencies were identified that encompassed the entire range of laboratory-related aspects of health literacy. We propose that these eight competencies form the basis of a set of competencies needed for one to access, interpret, and act on laboratory results–a capacity we are referring to as “laboratory literacy.”