FAQs
What is Health Literacy?
Health literacy can be defined as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.” (Ratzan & Parker, 2000).
Ratzan SC, Parker RM (2000). Introduction. In Selden CR, Zorn M, Ratzan SC, Parker RM (Eds.). National Library of Medicine Current Bibliographies in Medicine: Health Literacy. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
What is The Talking Touchscreen (TT)/La Pantalla Parlanchina (PP)?
The Talking Touchscreen uses multimedia touchscreen technology to administer and assess self-reported measures, including those for health status, quality of life, and health literacy. Individual items appear on a screen in written format, accompanied by an audio recording of the question and the response choices. Various colors, fonts and graphic images are used to enhance visibility, and the small picture icon that appears near each text element allows patients to replay the sound as many times as they wish.
What is the Health LiTT measure?
The Health LiTT (Health Literacy Assessment Using Talking Touchscreen Technology; Hahn et al., 2011) is a measure of health literacy that uses the novel health information technology of The Talking Touchscreen to provide an administration platform acceptable to patients with varying literacy skills and computer experience. The Health LiTT was designed as a self-administered multimedia touchscreen test based on item response theory (IRT) principles. The IRT-calibrated item bank of 82 items includes three different item types (prose, document, quantitative). Defined by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and adopted by the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), prose literacy focuses on the understanding and use of information from texts; document literacy requires the ability to locate and use information from forms, tables, graphs, etc.; and quantitative literacy requires the ability to apply arithmetic operations using numbers embedded in printed materials. In the context of health literacy, the term ‘numeracy’ has commonly been applied to document and quantitative literacy tasks.
How do I access to the Health LiTT measure?
The Assessment Center team has developed templates that can easily be used for administering a Health Literacy Assessment with the Talking Touchscreen multimedia approach. Please contact us to work out a collaboration or get a quote.
How do I obtain permission to use the Health LiTT measure? Is there a charge?
At this time, there is no charge for use of the Health LiTT measure. To obtain permission for use, please contact us at healthlitt@northwestern.edu .
How do I obtain permission for use of questionnaires and surveys using The Talking Touchscreen (TT) (other than the Health Litt)? Is there a charge?
Questionnaires that are currently available using the TT such as the PROMIS-Global 10 are available for use through the nihproms.org website, or more directly, through the Assessment Center website at assessmentcenter.net. Currently, there is no charge for use.
How do I get access to the Health Education Software?
The software is available from the DiabetesHelp® Institute (www.DiabetesHelpInstitute.com). See also Health Education Software page.
How do I obtain permission to customize the Talking Touchscreen technology?
Many questionnaires can be customized for Talking Touchscreen application. To inquire about customization, please contact us by sending an email to healthlitt@northwestern.edu .
Are the TT/Health LiTT questionnaire or other questionnaires available in languages other than English?
The Health LiTT questionnaire is currently available in both English and Spanish. The PROMIS-Global 10 is available in English and Spanish as well as other languages. For a current list of available languages, please consult the Assessment Center website at www.assessmentcenter.net.
What is Assessment Center?
Assessment CenterSM (http://www.assessmentcenter.net/) is a free, online data collection tool that enables researchers to create study-specific websites for capturing participant data securely online. Studies can include measures within the Assessment Center library as well as custom instruments entered by the researcher.
Among other important features, Assessment Center also enables:
§ Downloading library instruments for administration on paper
§ Customization of items or instruments (e.g., format, randomization, skip patterns)
§ Real-time scoring of CATs and short forms
§ Storage of protected health information (PHI) in a separate, secure database
§ Automated accrual reports
§ Real-time data export
§ Ability to capture endorsement of online consent forms
What equipment or technology requirements are needed to administer Talking Touchscreen Technology?
The minimum hardware/operating system/browser/software needs for conducting a study in Assessment Center using Talking Touchscreen Technology:
|
Supported |
Recommended |
Operating System |
Windows XP or Higher |
Windows Vista or Higher |
Screen Resolution |
Research Assistant 1024 X 768
Participant 800 X 600 |
1024 X 768 or Higher |
Internet Browser |
Internet Explorer 7 & 8
Mozilla Firefox 4.0 |
Internet Explorer 8
Mozilla Firefox 4.0 |
Mobile Devices |
** (see below) |
** (see below) |
Connection Speed |
DSL/Broadband @750
Kbps/down and 128 Kbps/up or higher |
Broadband @ 3 Mbps/down and 384Kbps/up or higher |
It is recommended that the Health LiTT measure and other instruments that use Talking Touchscreen Technology be administered on a touchscreen computer which enables use of a stylus or manual navigation of the touchscreen program for easy self-administration.
** At this time, Talking Touchscreen Technology and Health LiTT have not been fully tested for mobile devices such as smartphones (e.g., iPhone, Samsung Galaxy) or tablets (e.g., iPad, iPad-Mini, Google Nexus).
However, in a recent project, iPads worked well. We recommend that you use the “demo” links on this website with your preferred devices to determine the feasibility of a particular device, operating system and browser.