IBC Oxford University Oral Abstract 44 - Comparing the accuracy of healthcare professionals’ estimations of their patients’ health numeracy level in the general hospital population to patients attending a metabolic and bariatric surgical (MBS) clinic

Abstract Background To support patients in their weight loss journey, it is important that healthcare professionals (HCPs) recognise their patient’s communication needs and adapt to them. This study looks at the health literacy and numeracy (HLN) of patients attending a bariatric outpatient clinic and the accuracy of HCPs’ estimations of patients’ HLN. Method Patients completed validated HLN measures—the Medical Term Recognition Test (METER) and General Health Numeracy Test Short Form (GHNT-6) and a demographics survey. HCPs provided an estimation of the patient’s HLN after their consultation based on the scoring categories of each measure. The score from the patient-completed measures and estimations from the HCP were compared. Results Data was collected from 31 patients attending clinic in a single tertiary centre. Based on METER, 80% of patients demonstrated functional health literacy and 7% low health literacy. There was poor agreement between HCPs estimations and measured health literacy (ICC = 0.14; 95% c.i. = -0.19, 0.443), with HCPs more likely to underestimate than overestimate patient’s health literacy (27.8% versus 11.1%). 61.1% of HCPs’ health literacy estimations agreed with METER categories. In the health numeracy measure 3.2% (n = 1) of participants answered all questions correctly, 22.6% of participants scored 0, and 19.4% (n = 6) answered the food label question correctly. There was poor agreement between HCP estimation and measured health numeracy (ICC = -0.196; c.i. = −0.487, 0.1360 P = 0.878), with HCPs more likely to overestimate than underestimate patients’ health numeracy (63.9% versus 22.2%). Only 13.9% of HCP health numeracy estimations agreed with GHNT-6 ratings. Conclusion There is poor agreement between HCPs’ perception of their patient’s HLN and patient’s assessed ability through a validated questionnaire. Health numeracy is a known barrier to understanding health-related information and is a demonstrated area for further development in this patient population. HCPs’ identification/appreciation of these is vital in supporting patients’ journeys through the challenging bariatric surgery pathway and postoperative course.