Fear of coronavirus and health literacy levels of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was a cross-sectional survey, so it cannot show that health literacy caused lower fear or that improving literacy would reduce fear. Participants were volunteers from five family health centers in one Turkish city, and 304 of 378 invited adults were analysed, so the sample may not represent older adults who did not attend, refused, were illiterate, had sensory or neuropsychiatric problems, or completed forms incorrectly. 71.4% were 65 to 69 years old, 75% were married, and 49.7% were primary school graduates, so it may not represent much older, unmarried, or more educated older adults. The fear and health literacy scales had no cut-off scores, so 'moderate' is a relative description based on the possible score range, not a clinical threshold. Data were collected during a rapidly changing pandemic period, partly online and partly in person, and participants were not asked about prior COVID-19 infection, internet use, social media, eHealth literacy, or information sources. The paper reports the health literacy model as explaining approximately 2% of variance while also giving Adjusted R² = 0.16, so the amount of explained variance is unclear.

The authors report no actual or potential conflict of interest, and the research did not receive a specific grant from public, commercial, or not-for-profit funding agencies.

Do not conclude that improving older adults' health literacy will reduce their fear of COVID-19. The study measured fear and literacy at the same time and found only a weak negative association, so it did not test whether any education intervention changed fear.