Health literacy research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: an integrative review

Wikkeling-Scott, Ludmilla; Ajja, Rahma; Rikard, R. V.

doi:10.1007/s00038-018-01200-1

Cited by 14 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…The comparison is relevant as both studies utilized the tool 'Newest Vital sign' tool. This discrepancy in health literacy level between Ireland and Qatar could be due to the cultural and multinational differences between these countries [29].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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‘The newest vital sign among pregnant women attending women wellness and research Centre in Qatar: a cross-sectional study’

Naja

Elyamani

Ibrahim

et al. 2021

BMC Pregnancy Childbirth

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Background Health literacy is a vital strategy to consider when designing health-promoting programs, and health literacy is a priority in Qatar’s national health agenda. In the context of pregnancy, inadequate health literacy has been linked to several adverse outcomes among pregnant women such as unplanned conception, smoking, and lack of multi-vitamin intake. Given the paucity of data, this study aimed to assess the level of health literacy and its determinants among pregnant women in the State of Qatar. Methods An analytical cross-sectional design was utilized. First, we piloted the measurement tools on 10% of the calculated sample size. Accordingly, the items of the measurement tools were revised. Next, we utilized a structured questionnaire to interview the participants about their socio-demographic characteristics, pregnancy-related factors, and the Newest Vital Sign Tool. A chi-square test was employed to investigate the association level among variables, with significance set to P < 0.05. A logistic regression model was used to identify the factors associated with a low literacy level. Results We found that almost four in 10 pregnant women (n = 138,45.4%) had inadequate health literacy. Furthermore, the insufficient level of health literacy was significantly associated with low educational background, decreased household income, and primigravida. However, uncontrolled glycaemia was the only significant predictor of inadequate health literacy through logistic regression. The scale was found to be reliable, with a calculated Cronbach’s alpha of 0.8. Conclusions Low health literacy is common among pregnant women in the State of Qatar. Thus, public health officials should focus on delivering tailored health literacy interventions to pregnant women in the country.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The 'Newest Vital Sign' was translated and adapted to the Arabic language and tested for cultural suitability [27,28]. It is one of the most frequently adapted tools to assess health literacy in the Eastern Mediterranean Region [29].…”

Section: Variables and Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘The newest vital sign among pregnant women attending women wellness and research Centre in Qatar: a cross-sectional study’

Naja

Elyamani

Ibrahim

et al. 2021

BMC Pregnancy Childbirth

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“…Although in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region countries a number of studies have been carried out to investigate HL measures [17][18][19][20], among older adults and patients with chronic diseases [18], as well as the determination of HL [21], few studies have previously investigated the contribution of different socio-demographic factors to HL, and the associations between gender and HL in the region. Also, a majority of previous studies has only investigated the associations between sociodemographic characteristics and HL.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender-based Inequalities in Health literacy among an Iranian Kurd Population: Results of a Community Survey

Mahmoodi

Moradzadeh

Iranpour

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background Health literacy, as a social determinant of health, has a decisive role in providing different populations with healthcare services in an equal manner. Our aim in this study was to investigate the contribution of socio-demographic factors to functional health literacy (FHL) in a population of Iranian adults and identify differences in the contribution of these factors across genders. Methods This community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015 to 2016 in Sanandaj, Iran. Multistage cluster sampling was employed to recruit 1000 people older than 18 (response rate = 89.2%) from 35 urban and 10 rural health care centers. Test of functional health literacy in adults (TOFHLA) was used to assess FHL. In order to measure inequality in FHL, concentration index decomposition was used. Results In total, 869 respondents (response rate: 86.9%) with a mean age (standard deviation; SD) of 33.68 (13.0) completed TOFHLA questionnaire. More than half of participants were women (57.5%). Participants demonstrated an average TOFHLA score of 51.9. Women demonstrated slightly higher TOFHLA scores (52.2 [SD: 0.46]) compared to men (50.7 [SD: 0.4]). However, the concentration index for gender was 10.9% suggesting gender contributed only moderately to TOFHLA scores. Comparatively, 54.3% of TOFHLA differences were attributed to geographic location. Among women, place of residence, monthly income, age, education level and being head of household contributed to 43%, 32%, 13%, 11.5% and 11% of FHL inequality, respectively. Among men, however, place of residence (45.2%), size of household (15.1%) and monthly income (13.5%) contributed most to inequality in FHL. Conclusions Although gender was not the strongest contributing factor for FHL inequalities, poor FHL was mostly concentrated among men. Different factors were attributed to FHL inequality by gender, as discussed inside. Understanding these differences may assist in identifying and targeting interventions towards men and women with low levels of FHL. Our findings shed light the critical role of social determinants of health (SDH) in promoting the health literacy of populations, particularly in developing countries like Iran.

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“…Although in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region countries a number of studies have been carried out to investigate health literacy measures (20)(21)(22)(23)(24), among older adults and patients with chronic diseases (22), as well as the determination of HL (25), few studies have previously investigated the contribution of different socio-demographic factors to HL, and the associations between gender and health literacy in the region. Also, a majority of previous studies has only investigated the associations between socio-demographic characteristics and HL.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender-based Inequalities in Health literacy among an Iranian Kurd Population: Results of a Community Survey

Mahmoodi

Moradzadeh

Iranpour

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background : Health literacy, as a social determinant of health, has a decisive role in providing different populations with healthcare services in an equal manner. Our aim in this study was to investigate the contribution of socio-demographic factors to functional health literacy (FHL) in a population of Iranian adults and identify differences in the contribution of these factors across genders. Methods : This community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015 to 2016 in Sanandaj, Iran. Multistage cluster sampling was employed to recruit 1000 people older than 18 (response rate = 89.2%) from 35 urban and 10 rural health care centers. Test of functional health literacy in adults (TOFHLA) was used to assess FHL. In order to measure inequality in FHL, concentration index decomposition was used. Results: In total, 869 respondents (response rate: 86.9%) with a mean age (standard deviation; SD) of 33.68 (13.0) completed TOFHLA questionnaire. More than half of participants were women (57.5%). Participants demonstrated an average TOFHLA score of 51.9. Women demonstrated slightly higher TOFHLA scores (52.2 [SD: 0.46]) compared to men (50.7 [SD: 0.4]). However, the concentration index for gender was 10.9% suggesting gender contributed only moderately to TOFHLA scores. Comparatively, 54.3% of TOFHLA differences were attributed to geographic location. Among women, place of residence, monthly income, age, education level and being head of household contributed to 43%, 32%, 13%, 11.5% and 11% of FHL inequality, respectively. Among men, however, place of residence (45.2%), size of household (15.1%) and monthly income (13.5%) contributed most to inequality in FHL. Conclusions: Although gender was not the strongest contributing factor for FHL inequalities, poor FHL was mostly concentrated among men. Different factors were attributed to FHL inequality by gender, as discussed inside. Understanding these differences may assist in identifying and targeting interventions towards men and women with low levels of FHL. Our findings shed light the critical role of social determinants of health (SDH) in promoting the health literacy of populations, particularly in developing countries like Iran.

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Health literacy research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: an integrative review

Cited by 14 publications

References 73 publications

‘The newest vital sign among pregnant women attending women wellness and research Centre in Qatar: a cross-sectional study’

‘The newest vital sign among pregnant women attending women wellness and research Centre in Qatar: a cross-sectional study’

Gender-based Inequalities in Health literacy among an Iranian Kurd Population: Results of a Community Survey

Gender-based Inequalities in Health literacy among an Iranian Kurd Population: Results of a Community Survey

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