Health literacy level among journalists and general population: a cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Abstract Background Recent studies have shown that low Health Literacy (HL) negatively influence people's health. In an era of fake news journalists are called to recognize reliable sources in order to provide trustworthy information, especially on health topics. The aim of the study was to evaluate the knowledge of health-related topics among health journalists and how it differs from general population. Methods A cross-sectional survey was made by administering an online 28-item questionnaire. The questionnaire was constructed by joining an introductive part assessing socio-demographic characteristics with three tests: Single Item Literacy Screener (SILS), Medical Data Interpretation Test (MDIT) and IMETER, the Italian version of Medical Term Recognition Test (METER). Results A total of 589 valid surveys were obtained. Regarding this sample, 130 participants were journalists, 142 were healthcare workers and 317 belonged to general population. Journalists dealing with health-related topics (p = 0.016) and writing for online newspapers (p = 0.035) were found to have a higher HL, as well as those having a postgraduate qualification compared to colleagues with lower educational qualifications (p = 0.012). Instead, low HL was found among those journalists considering insufficient their economic status (p = 0.031) and among those who had never or only occasionally written about health-related issues (p < 0.001). Among general population HL level was lower for females (p < 0.001), while it was higher for participants with higher educational status (p = 0.038). Conclusions These results suggest that education is a key factor for an adequate health literacy. Given the importance, writing about medical and healthcare topics should be prerogative of journalists specifically formed in those fields. Key messages An adequate education strongly influences health literacy. It is of great importance to have specialized journalists write about medical and health-related topics.