Comparison of health literacy in selected groups of individuals

Česká verzia

Authors: R. Belešová; D. Filausová; M. Trešlová
Authors place of work: Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Zdravotně sociální fakulta, Ústav ošetřovatelství, porodní asistence a neodkladné péče, Ředitelka: prof. PhDr. Valérie Tóthová, Ph. D.
Published in the journal: Prakt. Lék. 2019; 99(4): 175-180
Category: Of different specialties

Summary

Aim: Health literacy is seen as the ability of people to acquire, evaluate and apply adequate health information. Provides people with the ability to judge and make decisions about health care, disease prevention as well as health promotion to preserve and improve their quality of life. There are a number of factors involved in the level of health literacy of the population, such as age, gender, education, place of residence as well as cultural and economic conditions.

Goal: The paper studies and compares the level of health literacy in selected groups of individuals, particularly in adults and the poor.

Methods: The study used a quantitative method using a standardized 16-item questionnaire (one-dimensional Rasch-scale) to identify the population’s health literacy. The resulting scale for the abbreviated questionnaire contained 16 items. Based on this scale, 3 basic health literacy levels were set: (1) insufficient health literacy level (0–8 points), (2) marginal health literacy level (9–12 points), and (3) sufficient health literacy level (13–16 points). Statistic data processing was performed using the SASD software. The adult sample consisted of 303 respondents at the age between 18 and 64 years. The sample of the poor contained 300 respondents (18 and older).

Results: The statistic results showed that insufficient health literacy had been revealed in 17.5% of the adult respondents, compared with 31.9% in the group of the poor. Marginal health literacy was found in 31.5% of the former group and 34.3% of the latter group. Sufficient health literacy was proven in 51.0% of the adult respondents and only in 33.8 % of the respondents living below the poverty line.

Conclusions: Based on a mutual comparison of study results of the selected population groups (group 1 – adults, group 2 – the poor), insufficient health literacy is obvious in the poor as compared with the standard adult population. An essential finding is the fact that the degree of health literacy is, beside the age, education, occupation and healthy life style, influenced by the economic situation and social status.

Keywords:

Adults – comparison – health literacy – poverty

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