Clinical Research Patients' Degree of Health Literacy: A Cross-Sectional Survey from Eskisehir, Turkey (original) (raw)
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Patients' Degree of Health Literacy: A Cross-Sectional Survey from Eskisehir, Turkey
ENT Updates, 2018
Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate the levels of health literacy amongst patients admitted to the ENT department of Eskisehir Osmangazi University in June 2018. Methods: 200 patients (comprising 107 males and 93 females), selected at random, consented to the study. They were supplied with the Health Literacy Questionnaire, which was used to evaluate health literacy. Results: The majority of respondents indicated that they were unsure about whether particular symptoms related to disease or not, lack confidence in being able to read and fully comprehend a text about their disease and have difficulty comprehending and trusting doctors' advice. They experienced difficulty in weighing advantages and disadvantages of treatment options, finding information relating to symptomatology and particular diseases and being aware when a second opinion would be appropriate. There were deficits apparent in understanding both positive and negative influences of the environment, lifestyle and nutrition. Nutritional advice was poorly comprehended. By contrast, no difficulties were apparent in obtaining medical appointments, making contact with doctors or using medication as directed. Respondents were confident about how to act in an emergency and when to call an ambulance, when to go for checkups and how to locate information on the management and prevention of obesity, hypertension or hypercholesterolaemia. Conclusion: Health literacy is of prime importance in public health. Bolstering health literacy, especially where levels are low, is necessary. Healthcare staff need to work on being more easily understood in the interests of promoting effective communication across the entire social spectrum.
Health literacy among adults: a study from Turkey
Health Education Research, 2010
Patients' health literacy is increasingly recognized as a critical factor affecting health communication and outcomes. We performed this study to assess the levels of health literacy by using Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) and Newest Vital Sign (NVS) instruments. Patients (n 5 456) at a family medicine clinic completed in-person interviews, REALM and NVS tests which were translated into the Turkish language by translation-back translation process. Additional questions regarding demographic characteristics were also collected. The mean scores (mean % standard error) for REALM and NVS were 60.29 % 0.32 and 2.60 % 0.08, respectively. The REALM test scores showed that 2.7% had inadequate (less than or equal to 6th grade), 38.6% marginal (7th to 8th grade) and 58.7% (greater than or equal to 9th grade) adequate health literacy. The NVS test score revealed a proportion of 28.1% had adequate health literacy. Educational attainment was the most important demographic characteristic found to be related to the health literacy. Reading and vocabulary skills were better than numerical capabilities. Female, primary school educated and poor economic condition participants and those who were older had the lowest scores in both the tests.
A New Comprehensive Short-form Health Literacy Survey Tool for Patients in General
Asian Nursing Research, 2017
Purpose To validate a conceptual short-form health literacy 12 items questionnaire (HL-SF12) in patient populations. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted via a convenient sample of 403 patients from three departments of a community general hospital in the northern Taiwan. Patients’ health literacy was assessed with a validated HL-SF12, derived from the full scale, the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q), as well as a single-item from Chew’s Set of Brief Health Literacy Question. A reference population in Northern Taiwan (n = 928) via the HLS-EU-Q in 2013–2014 was used as a reference to compare the health literacy between that of the general public and the patients. Data was analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), internal consistency analysis, correlation analysis, and linear regression models. Results Patients’ health literacy assessed with the HL-SF12 was shown with high internal consistency (Cronbach α = .87), and moderately correlated with the single-item from Chew's Set of Brief Health Literacy Question, with satisfactory item-scale convergent validity (item-scale correlation ≥ .40), without floor/ceiling effect, and with satisfactory goodness of fit indices of the three-factor construct model for most of the patients. Their health literacy was significantly positively associated with female gender, higher income, and more often watching health-related TV programs. On the other hands, patients were reported with significantly higher healthcare health literacy than the general public, but not in general health literacy, disease prevention health literacy, or health promotion health literacy. Conclusion The comprehensive HL-SF12 was a valid and easy to use tool for assessing patients’ health literacy in the hospitals to facilitate healthcare providers in enhancing patients’ health literacy and healthcare qualities.
Journal of Health Sciences and Medicine, 2022
Aim: This study aimed to reveal the level of health literacy of the patients who applied to the family medicine clinic of a tertiary hospital in Turkey and its relationship with demographic parameters. Material and Method: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study. Study conducted in the family medicine clinic of an education hospital. Demographic characteristics and health literacy levels of the participants such as age, gender, marital status, educational status, professions, and financial status were noted. The health literacy levels of the participants were determined by using the Turkish Health Literacy Scale-32. Results: A total of 443 participants were included in the study. the median age of the participants was 36. The median health literacy of the participants was 33.9 (25th and 75th quartiles: 29.2-40.8). The health literacy index of 57 (12.9%) participants were inadequate 139 (31.4%) participants was problematic, 147 (33.2%) participants were sufficient, and 100 (22.6%) participants was excellent. There was a statistically significant, negative, and weak correlation between age and health literacy index. (r=-0.200, p=0.01, Spearman correlation test). Conclusion: Low health literacy is an important public health problem. Health literacy can be considered a priority policy issue. Legal arrangements can be made to carry out activities for health literacy.
Health literacy as a key for effective preventive medicine
Cogent Social Sciences, 2017
Background: A preventive approach in health care aims to anticipate the natural history of the diseases and to define break points where the procedures may act to change future events, on the limit of the patient's free will. Patient is an active agent and the main responsible for his/her own health status. The way to achieve the best integration of the providers' prescriptions and the patients' decisions is through education, aiming to increase the literacy status. Body of abstract: Higher levels of literacy for health allow better health decisions, stronger commitment with them and superior levels of efficiency. Patients have to possess enough information enabling its incorporation in free and clear decision-making. In preventive approach, literacy contributes to maximize the profit of health investment and to rationalize the available resources by ceasing some old-fashioned and inadequate technologies, thus contributing to sustainability of health systems. Conclusion: The improvement of patients' health literacy is crucial. Higher literacy means better health outcomes, both in an individual point of view as for general population, in every levels of preventive approach. Thus, literacy is a relevant determinant of individual health and a public health priority.
Eurasian Journal of Family Medicine, 2022
Aim: This study aimed to determine the level of health literacy among individuals visiting the Family Medicine Clinic in Tepecik Hospital and to reveal the relationship between health literacy and independent variables. Methods: This study has a cross-sectional analytical design. A sample size of 141 was found to produce a two-sided 95% confidence interval and an estimated standard deviation of 6141 people who met the inclusion criteria participated in the study. The dependent variable in the study was the health literacy level determined by using the Turkish Health Literacy Scale. Student’s t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis, and linear regression analysis were used to analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. Results: The mean Turkish Health Literacy Scale score was 28.95±5.86; 60.28% of the participants had problematic-limited health literacy, while 20.57% had insufficient, 17.02% had sufficient, and 2.13% had excellent health literacy. Th...
Evaluation of the health literacy levels of patients applying to Family Medicine outpatient clinics
Family Medicine & Primary Care Review, 2021
Background. Today, the concept of health literacy is used to determine the health needs of the population in parallel with ever-increasing health knowledge. Objectives. The aim of the study is to evaluate the health literacy level of patients who apply to the Family Medicine preventive health services of Düzce University Hospital and to investigate the relevant factors that may be related to health literacy. Material and methods. This study was a cross-sectional study carried out between October 2018 and April 2019. The patients were evaluated utilizing the “Health Literacy Survey-European Union (HLS-EU)” scale. The study took place in Düzce Medical Faculty Hospital, Turkey. Results. A total of 816 patients, 48.5% (n = 396) of them male and 51.4% (n = 420) female, were included in the study. The general health literacy levels of the patients were as follows: 30.6% (n = 250) insufficient, 33.4% (n = 272) limited, 28.9% (n = 236) sufficient, 7.1% (n = 58) excellent. According to all s...
Health Literacy: The Most Neglected Essential Human Quality
People must have particular personality traits and social resources, also known as health literacy, in order to access, comprehend, and use information to make decisions about their health. Patients’ ability to engage in complex disease management and self-care is strongly related to their level of health literacy. It can help us stay healthy by preventing illness and effectively managing existing illnesses. People with low health literacy (LHL) may find it difficult to manage their condition and prevent illness, which may lead to increased use of healthcare services. Furthermore, LHL is associated with increased hospitalizations, increased use of emergency care, decreased use of preventative services, and a worsened ability to understand labels and health messages, a worsened state of health, higher mortality, and more expensive medical care.
Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire
Health literacy is a public health priority which refers to individual's knowledge, motivation and competence to access, understand, appraise and apply health information to prevent disease and promote health in daily life. This study aimed to adapt European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47) into Turkish and to investigate its psychometric properties. The questionnaire was translated into Turkish by using both group translation and expert opinion methods. Forward translation–back translation method was used for language validity and the final Turkish version (HLS-TR) was formed. HLS-EU-Q47 and Health Awareness Scale (HAS) were administered to 505 respondents. The scale reliability was examined using Crohnbach's alpha coefficient and the construct validity was assessed by principal axis factoring procedure. The convergent validity was obtained by Pearson correlation coefficients between HLS-TR and HAS scores and discriminant validity was examined comparing the scores of participants who were stratified according to ages, educational status, gender, general health status and social status. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole scale was 0.95. Principal axis factoring extracted nine factors which eigenvalues were >1 and explained 50.01% of total variance. Factor matrix displayed that all items gave greater load in factor 1, showing that health literacy measured with one factor. Positive and significant correlation was found between HLS-TR and HAS. Significant relations were found between HLS-TR scores and selected determinants of health. This study revealed that the HLS-TR was a valid and reliable measuring instrument with appropriate psychometric characteristics.
Pielegniarstwo XXI wieku / Nursing in the 21st Century
Introduction. The concept of health literacy is often used as “health competence”, “health ability. It involves the skills and motivation of people to obtain and understand health information. To improve health understanding and assessment of health literacy, many instruments have been developed to measure health competences in different populations. Among them there is the multidimensional, comprehensive questionnaire HLS-EU-Q16, developed by the Consortium of European Countries. Aim. Review of health literacy studies using the European Health Competence Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q16) based on literature analysis. Method. Thematic review, unsystematic literature covering the years 2010-2018. The number of 17 source items was analyzed by the authors. Results. The overall level of health literacy was higher in European research than in non-European research. Low levels of health literacy were found in the elderly and chronically ill, immigrants and prisoners, as well as people with low e...