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BackgroundHealth literacy is a term employed to assess the ability of people to meet the increasing demands related to health in a rapidly evolving society. Low health literacy can affect the social determinants of health, health outcomes and the use of healthcare services. The purpose of the study was to develop a survey construct to assess health literacy within the context of regional culture. Different socioeconomic status among the Eastern and Middle Eastern countries may restrict, health information access and utilization for those with low literacy.MethodsBy employing expert panel, Delphi technique, focus group methodologies, and pre-testing using participants (N = 900) from the UAE and India, a survey construct to the Eastern-Middle Eastern cultures was developed. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s α and validity using Factor analysis. Kiaser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s tests were used to assess the strength of the relationship among the variables.ResultsInclusion of non-health related items were found to be critical in the authentic assessment of health literacy in the Eastern and Middle Eastern population given the influence of social desirability. Thirty-two percentage of the original 19-item construct was eliminated by the focus group for reasons of relevance and impact for the local culture. Field pretesting participants from two countries, indicated overall construct reliability (Cronbach’s α =0.85), validity and consistency (KMO value of 0.92 and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant).ConclusionThe Eastern-Middle Eastern Adult Health Literacy (EMAHL13), screening instrument is brief, simple, a useful indicator of whether or not a patient can read. It assessespatients’ ability to comprehend by distinguishing between health and non-health related items. The EMAHL13 will be a useful too for the reliable assessment of health literacy in countries, where culture plays a significant impact. This will be the first steptowards providing equitable access to healthcare for countries that have large populations with low socioeconomic status.

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Background Medical professionalism has received increased worldwide attention, yet there is limited information on the applicability and utility of established Western professionalism frameworks in non-Western nations.

Although competency-based medical education has become the standard for physician training in the West, many developing countries have not yet adopted competency-based training. In 2009 in the United Arab Emirates, the government regulatory and operational authorities for healthcare in Abu Dhabi mandated a wide-scale reform of the emirate’s postgraduate residency programs to the competency-based framework of the newly formed Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-International (ACGME-I). This article briefly describes the rationale for competency-based medical education and provides an overview of the transition from traditional, time-based residency training to competency-based postgraduate medical education for the Pediatrics residency programs in Abu Dhabi. We will provide data on the initial impact of this transition on resident performance and patient outcomes in a Pediatrics residency program in an academic medical center in the United Arab Emirates.