Health Literacy: What Is It and Why Is It Important to Measure?

Abstract

This report summarizes the proceedings of the first Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Clinical Trials (OMERACT) Health Literacy Special Interest Group workshop at the OMERACT 10 conference. Health literacy refers to an individual's capacity to seek, understand, and use health information. Discussion centered on the relevance of health literacy to the rheumatology field; whether measures of health literacy were important in the context of clinical trials and routine care; and, if so, whether disease-specific measures were required. A nominal group process involving 27 workshop participants, comprising a patient group (n = 12) and a healthcare professional and researcher group (n = 15), confirmed that health literacy encompasses a broad range of concepts and skills that existing scales do not measure. It identified the importance and relevance of patient abilities and characteristics, but also health professional factors and broader contextual factors. Sixteen themes were identified: access to information; cognitive capacity; disease; expression/communication; finances; health professionals; health system; information; literacy/numeracy; management skills; medication; patient approach; dealing with problems; psychological characteristics; social supports; and time. Each of these was divided further into subthemes of one or more of the following: knowledge, attitude, attribute, relationship, skill, action, or context. There were virtually no musculoskeletal-specific statements, suggesting that a generic health literacy tool in rheumatology is justified. The detailed concepts across themes provided new and systematic insight into what needs to be done to improve health literacy and consequently reduce health inequalities. These data will be used to derive a more comprehensive measure of health literacy.

Impact of Health Literacy in Patients with Chronic Musculoskeletal Disease–Systematic Review

“…New methods of measuring health literacy, beyond the functional level, are also required and there are a number of tools currently being evaluated. [29], [30], [31].…”

Health literacy: towards system level solutions

“…with a similar seed question asked of health professionals. 24 After several subsequent phases (both qualitative and quantitative), this team produced the multidimensional Health Literacy Questionnaire with robust psychometric properties. Its nine domains included "feeling understood and supported by healthcare providers," Some domains on the questionnaire mainly reflect traits and capacities of the individual; others mainly reflect support from others and wider external factors.…”

Importance of health literacy in oncology

“…9 The health literacy management scale is one measure that seeks to assess health literacy more broadly. 23 In addition, a number of self-report measures of health literacy have been developed. One example is the set of brief screening questions, which asks respondents to rate their confidence and difficulty in understanding health information, using a five-point Likert scale.…”