Toward a Better Understanding of Patient Health Literacy: A Focus on the Skills Patients Need to Find Health Information

While many health literacy assessments exist, this area of research lacks an instrument that isolates and reflects the four components driving this concept (abilities to find, understand, use, and communicate about health information). The purpose of this study was to determine what abilities compri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Qualitative health research 2017-07, Vol.27 (8), p.1160-1176
Main Authors: Champlin, Sara, Mackert, Michael, Glowacki, Elizabeth M., Donovan, Erin E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Consumer Health Information - methods
Consumer Health Information - standards
Credibility
Educational Status
Health education
Health information
Health Literacy
Health technology assessment
Humans
Information Seeking Behavior
Information technology
Internet
Medical personnel
Middle Aged
Navigation
Numerical information
Qualitative research
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Summary:While many health literacy assessments exist, this area of research lacks an instrument that isolates and reflects the four components driving this concept (abilities to find, understand, use, and communicate about health information). The purpose of this study was to determine what abilities comprise the first component, how a patient finds health information. Low (n = 13) and adequate (n = 14) health literacy patients, and health professionals (n = 10) described their experiences when looking for health information and the skills they employed to complete these tasks. Major skills/themes elicited included knowing when to search, credibility assessments, finding text and numerical information, interpersonal seeking, technology and online search, and spatial navigation. Findings from this study suggest that each of the dimensions included in the definition of health literacy warrants specific attention and assessment. Given identification of the skills comprising each dimension, interventions targeting deficits across health literacy dimensions could be developed to improve patient health.
ISSN:1049-7323
1552-7557
DOI:10.1177/1049732316646355