Student Health and Social Care Professionals’ Health Literacy Knowledge: An Exploratory Study
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Overview
2.2. Questionnaire Development
- Demographics and their understanding of the term ‘health literacy’ encompassing the first dimension, or ‘factual knowledge’. It asked for words or phrases that students think of when they hear the term ‘health literacy’.
- Conceptual health literacy knowledge encompassing the second dimension, or ‘conceptual knowledge’. This section asked for three signs of inadequate patient health literacy, three potential consequences of inadequate patient health literacy, and three actions that health and social care professionals can take to help a patient with inadequate health literacy.
2.3. Participants and Recruitment
- Aged 18 years or older;
- Currently enrolled in one of the aforementioned health or social care disciplines;
- Able to read and write in English;
- Advanced enough through their degree that they had completed all health literacy-related content at the time of participation.
2.4. Sample Size
2.5. Analysis and Reporting
- Category: each response was linked to at least one relevant category. The category ‘Vague’ was used when a response was ambiguous and the research team could not definitively derive the intent with context (e.g., ‘Impacts other areas’ as a potential consequence of inadequate health literacy could have been interpreted in multiple ways, with no context to derive intended meaning). The category ‘Other’ was used when a response did not fit within an existing category and was not reported frequently enough to warrant its own category (e.g., ‘Stress in health services’ as a sign of inadequate patient health literacy). One-word answers were categorized verbatim (e.g., the response ‘Understanding’ was categorized as ‘understanding’); when students provided more than one word the response was linked to a separate, more descriptive category (e.g., the response ‘Understanding colds and flu’ was categorized as ‘understanding health generally’).
- Code: within each category, similar responses were grouped together into codes. A single response could be attached to multiple codes (e.g., ‘Feel unable to navigate health system and end up avoiding health appointments’ was linked to ‘Not knowing where to go’ and ‘Low engagement with health professional’). The code ‘Other’ was used when a response fit within a category, but was not mentioned frequently enough to warrant its own code (e.g., ‘Impatience’ as a code within ‘Patient demeanor’).
- Description: a description of each category or code to ensure consistent theming between researchers.
- Key example: an example of a direct quote to enhance the description of the category or code.
3. Results
3.1. Demographics
3.2. Understanding of the Term ‘Health Literacy’
3.3. Three Signs Which Suggest Inadequate Patient Health Literacy
3.4. Three Potential Consequences of Inadequate Patient Health Literacy
3.5. Three Actions That Health and Social Care Professionals Can Take to Help a Patient with Inadequate Health Literacy
3.6. Additional Comments
4. Discussion
4.1. Strengths and Limitations
4.2. Future Research
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
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Age | Median 23 Years (IQR 2) | |
Gender n (%) | Female | 61 (68%) |
Male | 27 (30%) | |
Undisclosed | 2 (2%) | |
Health discipline n (%) | Pharmacy | 31 (34%) |
Podiatric Medicine | 26 (29%) | |
Social Work and Social Policy | 18 (20%) | |
Nursing | 8 (9%) | |
Dental Medicine | 7 (8%) |
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Wood, H.; Brand, G.; Clifford, R.; Kado, S.; Lee, K.; Seubert, L. Student Health and Social Care Professionals’ Health Literacy Knowledge: An Exploratory Study. Pharmacy 2023, 11, 40. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy11020040
Wood H, Brand G, Clifford R, Kado S, Lee K, Seubert L. Student Health and Social Care Professionals’ Health Literacy Knowledge: An Exploratory Study. Pharmacy. 2023; 11(2):40. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy11020040
Chicago/Turabian StyleWood, Helen, Gabrielle Brand, Rhonda Clifford, Sinead Kado, Kenneth Lee, and Liza Seubert. 2023. "Student Health and Social Care Professionals’ Health Literacy Knowledge: An Exploratory Study" Pharmacy 11, no. 2: 40. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy11020040
APA StyleWood, H., Brand, G., Clifford, R., Kado, S., Lee, K., & Seubert, L. (2023). Student Health and Social Care Professionals’ Health Literacy Knowledge: An Exploratory Study. Pharmacy, 11(2), 40. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy11020040