Health Literacy: The Reality of a Community in Alto Minho

Abstract

Background: Limited health literacy makes decision-making difficult and has implications for individual health, costs, and the organization of health systems in general, and therefore must be studied in different communities, allowing an adequate response to the specificities, particularities, and potentialities of each local situation. Methods: To evaluate the level of health literacy and relate it to sociodemographic variables (sex, age group, education, and employment situation), this study was carried out in a population of 3,927 individuals from a parish of Alto Minho with a random probabilistic sample of 351 individuals, stratified by age and sex, with a sampling error of 5%. This is a quantitative, observational, and cross-sectional study. Results: The majority of respondents were female (54.1%), with a mean age (±SD) of 44.94 ± 19.048 years, had higher education qualifications (74.0%), and were professionally active (61.0%). The health literacy of this community is limited (66.1%) in its different domains. In all of them, individuals assume easy and very easy activities that do not involve critical analysis and interpretation, and reveal greater difficulty in those that require this ability. Statistically significant relationships were found between the level of health literacy and schooling (χ2 = 33.552 and p ≤ 0.001). Conclusion: This study allowed us to recognize that the health literacy level of this Alto Minho community is limited. Also, the fact that it is related to certain sociodemographic variables sheds light on the health literacy level of the people of this community and on the challenges of promoting it.