Table 4

HRs (95% CIs) for the association between four measures of functional health literacy and mortality, controlling for sociodemographic, cognitive and health variables

Model 1
Age and sex		Model 2
+education		Model 3
+age-11 IQ		Model 4
+current fluid ability in older age		Model 5
+occup class		Model 6
+health status
REALM0.95 (0.90 to 1.01)
n=794		0.96 (0.90 to 1.01)
n=794		0.96 (0.90 to 1.02)
n=752		0.97 (0.91 to 1.04)
n=746		0.97 (0.90 to 1.04)
n=731		1.00 (0.92 to 1.07)
n=728
S-TOFHLA0.95 (0.92 to 0.98)**
n=744		0.95 (0.92 to 0.98)**
n=744		0.95 (0.91 to 0.98)**
n=702		0.97 (0.93 to 1.01)
n=697		0.98 (0.94 to 1.02)
n=682		1.00 (0.95 to 1.05)
n=680
NVS0.88 (0.80 to 0.97)**
n=789		0.88 (0.80 to 0.97)*
n=789		0.89 (0.80 to 0.99)*
n=746		0.96 (0.86 to 1.08)
n=742		0.97 (0.86 to 1.09)
n=727		0.96 (0.85 to 1.08)
n=724
General functional health literacy0.77 (0.65 to 0.92)**
n=740		0.75 (0.61 to 0.90)**
n=740		0.74 (0.59 to 0.93)*
n=698		0.87 (0.67 to 1.13)
n=694		0.911 (0.70 to 1.19)
n=679		0.95 (0.72 to 1.25)
n=677

  • *P<0.05, **p<0.01.

  • NVS, Newest Vital Sign; occup class, occupational class; REALM, Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine; S-TOFHLA, Shortened Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults.