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Abstract: A medical terminology achievement reading test (MART) administered to patients was developed for health care practitioners and researchers. In this study, 405 respondents from five populations (nursing home patients, college students, high school students, adult basic education students, and shopping mall customers) took both the MART and the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT). Cronbach's reliability test alpha indicated a high level (alpha = 0.98) of likelihood that the MART score is a good estimate of the true score (WRAT), and, therefore, reading ability. MART is designed to resemble a prescription label with its use of small print size, glossy cover, and medical terminology. This design allows practitioners and researchers to assess patients' inability to read the test. It is thought that its design and use of medical terminology makes the MART less threatening to patients than other literacy tests. Further studies of the MART in low-literate populations could determine whether this is true. Key words: Illiteracy, reading tests, medical terminology, prescriptions
literacy, a major problem facing the nation, has a direct effect on a patient's health.' Illiterate individuals may misinterpret health-related information that is essential to their well-being, which could cause their failure to obtain or follow through with the appropriate medical treatments. These patients may also lack the reading and communication skills needed to take advantage of medical treatment that is available to them.2 It is extremely difficult to identify illiterate patients in a nonthreatening manner because they go to great lengths to hide their reading deficiencies. Therefore, to identify illiterate patients, health care providers and researchers need an instrument that can determine patient reading level in a nonthreatening manner The American Heritage Dictionary defines an illiterate as someone who is "especially unable to read and write; having little or no education."3 The 1990 U.S. Bureau of Census defines illiteracy as "inability both to read and write in any or a specified language."4 There are three categories of illiteracy, and the reading levels that define each category overlap in different definitions of the categories. Approximately 20 percent of the adults in the United States are functionally illiterate; they read between the third and sixth grade level.' This is an underestimation of the problem, since the homeless, those institutionalized, and the elderly were...