Abstract
Today, a person’s health literacy (HL) is perceived as a critical determinant for their health. It is well known that limited health literacy is associated with harmful health behaviours, the lower use of preventive services, problems in making use of healthcare resources and poor skills for the self-management of chronic disorders. This study analysed the level and factors associated with HL in high school students in southern Poland. The study is based on the data from a paper-and-pencil survey of high schools students in the Malopolska Voivodshop. The students were selected using a two-stage cluster random sampling procedure. The level of HL was assessed with the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire, consisting of 47 items. Univariate logistic and linear regression models were applied to analyse the association between general HL score and the main domain-specific indices. The respondents whose parents had attended University and came from more affluent families were less likely to demonstrate limited HL. There was a significant positive relationship between the self-assessment of the economic situation, size of accommodation, the level of expenditure on a mobile phone and receiving external support, the size of the book collection at home, and domain-specific HL sub-indices. In conclusion, among socio-demographic factors, the parents’ education is the only consistent predictor of the level of HL in high school students. Furthermore, most variables reflecting the economic status of the respondent’s family are significantly associated with the general HL score and its sub-indices.
Highlights
Published: 21 November 2021The term health literacy (HL) is used in relation to the cognitive and social skills which have an impact on the motivation and ability of people to access, understand and use information in order to promote and maintain good health [1]
The evidence from the available research shows that HL may be an important determinant of health behaviours, the use of preventive services, the way that a person interacts with the healthcare system and the self-management of their long-term conditions [2,3,4,5,6]
The analysis reported in this paper confirmed that the prevalence of limited HL
Summary
The term health literacy (HL) is used in relation to the cognitive and social skills which have an impact on the motivation and ability of people to access, understand and use information in order to promote and maintain good health [1]. The evidence from the available research shows that HL may be an important determinant of health behaviours, the use of preventive services, the way that a person interacts with the healthcare system and the self-management of their long-term conditions [2,3,4,5,6]. The instruments may be designed to assess general HL or may be focused on specific domains, e.g., diabetes, oral health, etc. According to Liu et al [17], all 11 tools used for the measurement of the general
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