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Health literacy: a new piece of the puzzle in psoriasis care? A cross-sectional study

Version 2 2024-05-30, 15:16
Version 1 2019-04-11, 15:08
journal contribution
posted on 2024-05-30, 15:16 authored by MH Larsen, YAS Strumse, CR Borge, R Osborne, MH Andersen, AK Wahl
BACKGROUND: Health literacy (HL) - the ability to seek, understand and utilize health information - is important for good health. Suboptimal HL has been associated with poorer health outcomes in other chronic conditions, although this has not previously been studied in patients with psoriasis. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the HL strengths and weaknesses of a cohort of patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis. Another aim was to examine possible associations between patients' quality of life, their demographic, clinical and self-management characteristics, and dimensions of HL. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted. Data were collected from a cohort of patients with psoriasis who had received climate helio therapy from 2011 to 2016 (n = 825). HL was assessed by the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ). The association between HL domains, demographic, clinical and self-management variables were analysed using bivariate correlation and a four-step linear multiple regression model. RESULTS: The scores on all HLQ dimensions indicated lower health literacy than other populations. The linear regression models showed a significant association between HL, quality of life and self-management variables, with higher HL predicting higher quality of life, self-efficacy and psoriasis knowledge. Sex, educational attainment, age and disease severity had less influence on health literacy. CONCLUSIONS: Improving HL may be a useful strategy for reducing disparities in self-management skills for patients with psoriasis. Interventions that aim to reduce disease severity and increase psoriasis knowledge, self-efficacy and quality of life may positively increase HL.

History

Journal

British journal of dermatology

Volume

180

Pagination

1506-1516

Location

London, Eng.

ISSN

0007-0963

eISSN

1365-2133

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2019, British Association of Dermatologists

Issue

6

Publisher

Wiley