Health literacy levels of British adults: a cross-sectional survey using two domains of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ)

Background

A person’s health literacy determines whether they are able to make appropriate health decisions and are able to follow treatment instructions. This is important because low health literacy is associated with mortality and extra costs to the healthcare system. Our aim was to describe the health literacy levels of British adults using a nationally representative population survey, and show how health literacy levels vary by population characteristics.

Methods

A population based cross-sectional survey including questions from two domains from the Health Literacy Questionnaire™: 1) Understanding health information well enough to know what to do, and 2) Ability to actively engage with health care providers. Both domains are made up of 5 Likert style questions with 5 levels ranging from ‘cannot do or always difficult’ (1) to ‘always easy’ (5). The survey was conducted by NatCen in Britain (2018) as part of the annual British Social Attitudes survey. We used weighted descriptive analyses and regression to explore the relationship between population characteristics and health literacy. Weighted analyses were used to ensure the sample was representative of the British population.

Results

A total of 2309 responded to the questionnaire. The mean score for ‘understanding information’ was 3.98 (95% CI: 3.94, 4.02) and for ‘ability to engage’ was 3.83 (95% CI: 3.80, 3.87), where 5 is the highest score. 19.4% had some level of difficulty reading and understanding written health information, and 23.2% discussing health concerns with health care providers. The adjusted logistic regression for ‘understanding information’ showed that those with lower health literacy were more likely to be in the most socially deprived quintile (OR 2.500 95% CI: 1.180, 5.296), have a limiting health condition or disability (OR 4.326 95% CI: 2.494, 7.704), and have no educational qualifications (OR 7.588 95% CI: 3.305, 17.422). This was similar for the ‘ability to engage’ domain.

Conclusions

This study described the distribution of health literacy levels for the British population in 2018. Interventions to improve health literacy will best be targeted at those with lower levels of education, those living in the most deprived areas, and those with a limiting health condition or disability.