Assessing the influence of health literacy on health information behaviors: A multi-domain skills-based approach

Abstract

ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between five domain-specific skills of health literacy: Find Health Information (FHI), Appraise Health Information (AHI), Understand Health Information to act (UHI), Actively Manage One’s Health (AMH), and E-health literacy (e-Heals), and health information seeking behaviors and three categories of health outcomes. MethodsA survey was implemented and data was collected from 1062 college going adults and analyzed using bivariate tests and multiple regression analysis. ResultsAmong the five domain-specific Health Literacy skills, AHI and e-Heals were significantly associated with the use of traditional sources and the Internet for healthcare information respectively. Similarly and AMH and e-Heals were significantly associated with the use of traditional sources and the Internet for health lifestyle information respectively. Lastly AHI, AMH and e-Heals were significantly associated with the three categories of outcomes, and AFH was significantly associated with cognitive and instrumental outcomes, but not doctor-patient communication outcomes. ConclusionConsumers’ ability to use different health sources for both healthcare and health lifestyle information, and the three categories of health outcomes are associated with different domain-specific health literacy skills. Practice implicationsHealth literacy initiatives may be improved by focusing on clients to develop domain-specific skills that increase the likelihood of using health information sources and accrue benefits.