Health literacy and diabetes information preferences among Chinese immigrants: An Australian cross-sectional study.
Shanshan Lin, Danielle Muscat, Julie Ayre
PMID 39275909WHAT IT FOUND
Chinese immigrants with diabetes or high risk reported higher health literacy when English or Chinese-language proficiency was stronger. 75.6% were willing to receive Australian diabetes materials in Chinese, but 19.7% had received Chinese-language diabetes information from major Australian diabetes bodies.
Key findings
01Stronger English and Chinese-language proficiency were associated with higher health literacy scores, except Chinese-language proficiency was not associated with functional health literacy.
02Health literacy scores did not differ significantly by years living in Australia.
0375.6% were willing to receive Australian diabetes materials in Chinese language, and 63.5% preferred Simplified Chinese materials from Australia rather than China, while 19.7% had received Chinese-language diabetes information from major Australian diabetes bodies.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Convenience sampling through community organisations means the participants may not represent all Chinese immigrants in Australia. All data were self-reported, and diabetes status was not medically verified. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that language proficiency causes higher health literacy or that translated materials improve outcomes. The free-text theme analysis used comments from 57 participants, all of whom had lived in Australia for less than 5 years, so it may not represent longer-term immigrants. The health literacy measure was self-reported and had minor amendments for the Australian context.
Declared interests
The authors declared no competing interests. One author received a Postgraduate Research Support Scheme from the University of Sydney to collect data, and other named authors received no funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that translated Australian diabetes materials improve diabetes outcomes. It is a survey of self-reported health literacy, language proficiency and material preferences in a convenience sample, not a test of an education intervention.