Health Literacy and Sources of Health Information for Caregivers of Urban Children With Asthma

Abstract

Little is known about the resources urban caregivers of children with asthma use to obtain health information. We analyzed data for 304 families of children with persistent asthma to describe: 1) sources of health information, 2) access and use of Internet resources, and 3) the association between caregiver’s health literacy (HL) and use of health information sources. Overall, 37% of caregivers had Limited HL. Most families received health information from: a health care professional (94%); written sources (51%); family/friends (42%); non-print media (34%); and Internet (30%). Less than ½ of caregivers had access to Internet at home, but 73% reported Internet use in the past year. Caregivers with Adequate HL were more likely to obtain information from multiple sources, and to use and have access to the Internet. Our results suggest that HL is associated with where caregivers obtain health information for their children and their use of the Internet.

Provider Perceptions of Parent Health Literacy and Effect on Asthma Treatment Recommendations and Instructions

“…32 Parents of children with asthma with adequate health literacy have been found to utilize a variety of sources such as the Internet and social circles to aid in their children's disease management, but these sources are underutilized by parents with low health literacy, leaving the provider's communication as the primary source of information. 33 Given the importance of the provider's communication skills, utilizing methods demonstrated effective in improving outcomes, such as in the Physician Asthma Care Education study, 34 would be especially beneficial for those with low health literacy.…”

Adolescent Preferences and Design Recommendations for an Asthma Self-Management App: Mixed-Methods Study (Preprint)

“…Research shows that adolescents and caregivers of adolescents with asthma obtain health information from healthcare professionals and have a high level of trust in the healthcare information obtained from healthcare professionals. [31,32] Therefore allowing such individuals to provide clinically-sound asthma information in an asthma app and/or directing adolescents to evidence based asthma resources may prove beneficial. Furthermore, having peers present asthma information or appear in asthma informational shows can increase adolescent self-management efficacy through peer modeling.…”

Parent report and electronic medical record agreement on asthma education provided and children’s tobacco smoke exposure

“…We did not find an association between reporting education receipt and social desirability, but the study may not have been powered to detect this given the positive skew of the data. It is possible that recall of education gained outside the clinic visit from sources such as the internet or friends could bias a parent to report that they had received education during the visit [39].…”