Abstract
ObjectiveHealth literacy is a significant public health concern, particularly given the increased complexity of chronic disease health management and health system navigation, and documented associations between low health literacy and poor health outcomes. This study therefore aimed to identify the proportion and characteristics of outpatients visiting a specialist cancer hospital who report low health literacy and/or low cancer health literacy.MethodThis study used a cross-sectional survey administered verbally with patients attending a specialist cancer hospital located in Melbourne, Australia over a two-week period. Process data on conducting health literacy screening within a clinical setting was collected.ResultsThose identified with inadequate general health literacy were different to those identified with low cancer-specific health literacy, although overall both proportions were low. Cross-sectional screening of patients was difficult, despite utilising verbal surveying methods designed to increase capacity for participation.ConclusionHealth literacy screening using the tools selected was not useful for identifying or describing patients with low health literacy in this setting, given the disparity in those categorised by each measure.Practice ImplicationsUntil the theoretical construct of health literacy is better defined, measurement of health literacy may not be clinically useful.
Highlights
Older, seminal definitions of health literacy describe the universal and necessary abilities required by patients to successfully engage with the healthcare system, with a strong emphasis on underlying literacy and numeracy skills [1,2,3,4,5,6]
This study aimed to identify the characteristics and proportion of outpatients with low health and cancer literacy visiting a specialist cancer hospital using a general health literacy instrument and a cancer-specific health literacy instrument
The proportion of patients identified as having low health literacy by each tool was somewhat low, more patients were identified as having inadequate health literacy by the CHLT-6 (n=66, 21%), as compared with the Brief Health Literacy Screening Tool (BRIEF) (n=43, 13%)
Summary
Seminal definitions of health literacy describe the universal and necessary abilities required by patients to successfully engage with the healthcare system, with a strong emphasis on underlying literacy and numeracy skills [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Those who struggle with the demands of managing their health are classified as having low or inadequate health literacy [6, 7]. In considering newer conceptual models of health literacy and related system level programs aiming to reduce low health literacy, accurate understanding of Support Care Cancer (2021) 29:6605–6612 population characteristics and needs are required for these to be appropriate and effective [16]
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