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Title: | General practitioners’ predictions of their own patients’ health literacy: a cross-sectional study in Belgium | Authors: | STORMS, Hannelore Aertgeerts, Bert VANDENABEELE, Frank CLAES, Neree |
Issue Date: | 2019 | Publisher: | BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP | Source: | BMJ Open, 13:9(9), (Art. N° e029357). | Abstract: | Objectives To support patients in their disease management, providing information that is adjusted to patients’ knowledge and ability to process health information (ie, health literacy) is crucial. To ensure effective health communication, general practitioners (GPs) should be able to identify people with limited health literacy. To this end, (dis)agreement between patients’ health literacy and GPs’ estimations thereof was examined. Also, characteristics impacting health literacy (dis)agreement were studied. Design Cross-sectional survey of general practice patients and GPs undertaken in 2016–17. Setting Forty-one general practices in two Dutch-speaking provinces in Belgium. Participants Patients (18 years of age and older) visiting general practices. Patients were excluded when having severe impairments (physical, mental, sensory). Main outcome measures Patients’ health literacy was assessed with 16-item European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire. GPs indicated estimations on patients’ health literacy using a simple scale (inadequate; problematic; adequate). (Dis)agreement between patients’ health literacy and GPs’ estimations thereof (GPs’ estimations being equal to/higher/lower than patients’ health literacy) was measured using Kappa statistics. The impact of patient and GP characteristics, including duration of GP–patient relationships, on this (dis)agreement was examined using generalised linear logit model. Results Health literacy of patients (n=1375) was inadequate (n=201; 14.6%), problematic (n=299; 21.7%), adequate (n=875; 63.6%). GPs overestimated the proportion patients with adequate health literacy: adequate (n=1241; 90.3%), problematic (n=130; 9.5%) and inadequate (n=4; 0.3%). Overall, GPs’ correct; over-/underestimations of health literacy occurred for, respectively, 60.9%; 34.2%; 4.9% patients, resulting in a slight agreement (κ=0.033). The likelihood for GPs to over-/underestimate patients’ health literacy increases with decreasing educational level of patients; and decreasing number of years patients have been consulting with their GP. Conclusions Intuitively assessing health literacy is difficult. Patients’ education, the duration of GP–patient relationships and GPs’ gender impact GPs’ perceptions of patients’ health literacy. | Keywords: | general practice;health literacy;doctor-patient communication;literacy;health disparities;health knowledge | Document URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1942/29792 | ISSN: | 2044-6055 | e-ISSN: | 2044-6055 | DOI: | 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029357 | ISI #: | WOS:000497787600177 | Rights: | Open access. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. | Category: | A1 | Type: | Journal Contribution | Validations: | ecoom 2020 |
Appears in Collections: | Research publications |
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BMJOpen e029357.full.pdf | Published version | 612.69 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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