AIMS: It is important to address people's health literacy when providing health care. Health professionals should be aware of, and have insight into, people's health literacy when they provide health services. Health professionals need to be health literate themselves. We examined the level of health literacy in students in Denmark attending one of four full university programmes related to health and investigated how their health literacy was associated with their sociodemographic background. METHODS: The health literacy level of the students was measured using the multi-dimensional Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) supplemented with sociodemographic questions. The questionnaire was administrated through the students' Facebook groups. The students were enrolled in courses on health informatics, medicine, molecular biomedicine or public health. Out of a total of 7663 students, 630 responded to the questionnaire. RESULTS: No sex difference was found although female students scored higher than male students in domain 4 (social support for health). Students attending the public health programme tended to score higher and those attending molecular biomedicine tended to score lower in the HLQ. There was a positive correlation between HLQ scores and the educational level of the students' parents. If one of their parents was employed in the health care sector, the HLQ score tended to be higher in domains 1 and 4. Students who had been hospitalized also tended to score higher in domains 1, 5 and 6. CONCLUSIONS: Students' health literacy relates to their personal background and educational path. This may be of importance when planning curricula and educational activities, including cross-disciplinary courses.
AIMS: It is important to address people's health literacy when providing health care. Health professionals should be aware of, and have insight into, people's health literacy when they provide health services. Health professionals need to be health literate themselves. We examined the level of health literacy in students in Denmark attending one of four full university programmes related to health and investigated how their health literacy was associated with their sociodemographic background. METHODS: The health literacy level of the students was measured using the multi-dimensional Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) supplemented with sociodemographic questions. The questionnaire was administrated through the students' Facebook groups. The students were enrolled in courses on health informatics, medicine, molecular biomedicine or public health. Out of a total of 7663 students, 630 responded to the questionnaire. RESULTS: No sex difference was found although female students scored higher than male students in domain 4 (social support for health). Students attending the public health programme tended to score higher and those attending molecular biomedicine tended to score lower in the HLQ. There was a positive correlation between HLQ scores and the educational level of the students' parents. If one of their parents was employed in the health care sector, the HLQ score tended to be higher in domains 1 and 4. Students who had been hospitalized also tended to score higher in domains 1, 5 and 6. CONCLUSIONS: Students' health literacy relates to their personal background and educational path. This may be of importance when planning curricula and educational activities, including cross-disciplinary courses.
Entities:
Keywords:
Health literacy; curriculum planning; health education; students
Authors: Shyam Sundar Budhathoki; Paras K Pokharel; Nilambar Jha; Emma Moselen; Robyn Dixon; Meika Bhattachan; Richard H Osborne Journal: Int Health Date: 2019-01-01 Impact factor: 2.473
Authors: Lucas Kühn; Philip Bachert; Claudia Hildebrand; Jule Kunkel; Jörg Reitermayer; Hagen Wäsche; Alexander Woll Journal: Front Public Health Date: 2022-01-21
Authors: Dolors Juvinyà-Canal; Rosa Suñer-Soler; Adela Boixadós Porquet; Marion Vernay; Hervé Blanchard; Carme Bertran-Noguer Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2020-03-27 Impact factor: 3.390
Authors: Francesca Gallè; Patrizia Calella; Christian Napoli; Fabrizio Liguori; Eduardo Alfonso Parisi; Giovanni Battista Orsi; Giorgio Liguori; Giuliana Valerio Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2020-09-12 Impact factor: 3.390