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Examining the Interrelations Among Objective and Subjective Health Literacy and Numeracy and Their Associations with Health Knowledge.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Health literacy and numeracy influence many health-related behaviors and outcomes. Health literacy and numeracy have been assessed objectively and subjectively, but interrelationships among the measures and the consistency of their association with health knowledge have not been examined. OBJECTIVE:To increase understanding of the structure and interrelations among objective and subjective health literacy and numeracy and how these constructs relate to knowledge of risk factors of two major diseases. DESIGN:Secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data, weighted to be representative of the general US population of non-institutionalized adults. PARTICIPANTS:Participants (N?=?1005, 55.2% response rate) were recruited from GfK KnowledgePanel. The unweighted sample included 52% women, 26% racial/ethnic minorities, and 37% with no college experience. MAIN MEASURES:Objective health literacy, subjective health literacy, objective numeracy, subjective numeracy. Objective and perceived knowledge of diabetes and colon cancer risk factors were also assessed. KEY RESULTS:Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a model with correlated (r?=?0.16-0.56) but separate factors for each of the four literacy/numeracy constructs best fit the data (RMSEA?=?0.055 (95% CI 0.049-0.061), CFI?=?0.94). Consistency between measures in classifying people as having adequate or limited health literacy or numeracy was 60.9-77.1%, depending on the combination of measures. All four literacy/numeracy constructs were independently associated with objective diabetes knowledge and objective colon cancer knowledge (all ps?

SUBMITTER: Waters EA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6206359 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Examining the Interrelations Among Objective and Subjective Health Literacy and Numeracy and Their Associations with Health Knowledge.

Waters Erika A EA Biddle Caitlin C Kaphingst Kimberly A KA Schofield Elizabeth E Kiviniemi Marc T MT Orom Heather H Li Yuelin Y Hay Jennifer L JL

Journal of general internal medicine 20180817 11

<h4>Background</h4>Health literacy and numeracy influence many health-related behaviors and outcomes. Health literacy and numeracy have been assessed objectively and subjectively, but interrelationships among the measures and the consistency of their association with health knowledge have not been examined.<h4>Objective</h4>To increase understanding of the structure and interrelations among objective and subjective health literacy and numeracy and how these constructs relate to knowledge of risk ...[more]

PMID: 30120636

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Project description:Background. Numeracy skills are important for medical decision making as lower numeracy is associated with misinterpreting statistical health risks. Math anxiety, characterized by negative emotions about numerical tasks, and lower subjective numeracy (i.e., self-assessments of numerical competence) are also associated with poor risk comprehension. Objective. To explore independent and mediated associations of math anxiety, numerical ability, and subjective numeracy with risk comprehension and to ascertain whether their associations are specific to the health domain. Methods. Objective numeracy was measured with a 14-item test. Math anxiety and subjective numeracy were assessed with self-report scales. Risk comprehension was measured with a 12-item test. In experiment 1, risk comprehension items were limited to scenarios in the health domain. In experiment 2, participants were randomly assigned to receive numerically equivalent risk comprehension items in either a health or nonhealth domain. Results. Linear regression analyses revealed that individuals with higher objective numeracy were more likely to respond correctly to the risk comprehension items, as were individuals with higher subjective numeracy. Higher math anxiety was associated with a lower likelihood of correct responding when controlling for objective numeracy but not when controlling for subjective numeracy. Mediation analyses indicated that math anxiety may undermine risk comprehension in 3 ways, including through 1) objective numeracy, 2) subjective numeracy, and 3) objective and subjective numeracy in serial, with subjective numeracy mediating the association between objective numeracy and risk comprehension. Findings did not differ by domain. Conclusions. Math anxiety, objective numeracy, and subjective numeracy are associated with risk comprehension through unique pathways. Education initiatives for improving health risk comprehension may be most effective if jointly aimed at tackling numerical ability as well as negative emotions and self-evaluations related to numeracy.

Project description:BackgroundInterpreting health information and acquiring health knowledge have become more important with the accumulation of scientific medical knowledge and ideals of patient autonomy. Health literacy and its tremendous success as a concept can be considered an admission that not all is well in the distribution of health knowledge. The internet makes health information much more easily accessible than ever, but it introduces its own problems, of which health disinformation is a major one.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to determine whether objective and subjective health literacy are independent concepts and to test which of the two was associated more strongly with accurate judgments of the quality of a medical website and with behavioral intentions beneficial to health.MethodsA survey on depression and its treatments was conducted online (n=362). The Newest Vital Sign was employed to measure objective, performance-based health literacy, and the eHealth Literacy Scale was used to measure subjective, perception-based health literacy. Correlations, comparisons of means, linear and binary logistic regression, and mediation models were used to determine the associations.ResultsObjective and subjective health literacy were weakly associated with one another (r=0.06, P=.24). High objective health literacy levels were associated with an inclination to behave in ways that are beneficial to one's own or others' health (Exp[B]=2.068, P=.004) and an ability to recognize low-quality online sources of health information (β=-.4698, P=.005). The recognition also improved participants' choice of treatment (β=-.3345, P<.001). Objective health literacy helped people to recognize misinformation on health websites and improved their judgment on their treatment for depression.ConclusionsSelf-reported, perception-based health literacy should be treated as a separate concept from objective, performance-based health literacy. Only objective health literacy appears to have the potential to prevent people from becoming victims of health disinformation.

Project description:BackgroundAssessing subjective social status (SSS) may be easily accommodated in the context of a Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS). To our knowledge, no prior studies have examined the association of SSS and health in Angola. Subjective socioeconomic measures may provide a rapid assessment of a relevant social status construct, important for studying health inequalities. In this study, we addressed social determinants of health by examining the relationship between the subjective and objective social status, reported health and healthcare-seeking behaviour.MethodsThis research results from a cross-sectional study performed during 2015 in the Dande HDSS, in Angola. We tested the application of the MacArthur scale as a measure of SSS in a developing setting, in a sample of 12,246 households. First, we investigated its relation to objective socioeconomic indicators, and then we explored how subjective and objective social status associate with health reported needs and health-seeking behaviour of the surveyed population. Chi-square, ANOVA tests, and Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) Curves analysis were computed for testing relationships between subjective status ladder quartiles, sociodemographic and household characteristics. Logistic regression was used to examine the influence of subjective perception of status in self-reported health and health-seeking behaviour.ResultsOur findings suggest that the SSS follows a gradient distribution obtained with more objective socioeconomic indicators. Additionally, we found that subjective perception of status influence health needs reporting and health-seeking behaviour and its significant effect remained after controlling for the objective socioeconomic markers. Individuals standing in the second quartile of the social ladder have more odds of reporting illness and those in the highest quartiles of the ladder were twice more likely (OR = 2.23, 95% CI = 1.52-3.26) to seek help from formal health services than those at the bottom of the ladder.ConclusionsThe MacArthur Scale is a valuable tool to measure SSS in the Dande HDSS, relevant for studying socioeconomic disparities and health inequalities. It is also an easier alternative to traditional measures such as income, usually difficult to measure in developing settings. The social perception of status should be considered as a complement with objective indicators when exploring social determinants of health.

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Examining the Interrelations Among Objective and Subjective Health Literacy and Numeracy and Their Associations with Health Knowledge.

Publications

Examining the Interrelations Among Objective and Subjective Health Literacy and Numeracy and Their Associations with Health Knowledge.

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