Single-Item Literacy Scale (SILS)

The Single-Item Literacy Scale (SILS) is a 1-item perceptions-based measure of functional HL. Participants were asked, “How often do you need to have someone help you read instructions, pamphlets, or other written material from your doctor or pharmacy?” (25). Participants’ possible responses included never, rarely, sometimes, often, and always. Participants who endorsed never or rarely were categorized as SILS-Adequate HL, while all other responses were categorized as having difficulties with reading and writing health-related information (SILS-Inadequate HL). In their validation sample, Morris and colleagues (25) found that the measure had 54% sensitivity and 83% specificity in distinguishing people with limited reading ability.