Health literacy in the general population in the context of epidemic or pandemic coronavirus outbreak situations: Rapid scoping review.
Uwe Matterne, Nina Egger, Jana Tempes and 5 others
PMID 33109429WHAT IT FOUND
Public health literacy during coronavirus outbreaks was mostly measured through knowledge, attitudes or mask wearing, not a tested outbreak-specific tool.
Do not assume people's outbreak behaviour reflects their health literacy.
Key findings
01Only three included studies explicitly investigated or referred to health literacy.
02Most included studies measured components of health literacy rather than explicitly investigating health literacy itself.
03No included study developed or tested a pandemic or epidemic health literacy instrument, or linked health literacy to outbreak outcomes.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was a rapid scoping review, so it used less rigour than a traditional systematic review. The search was restricted to two databases and did not include grey literature. The review did not appraise the quality of the included studies. Many included studies did not set out to measure health literacy; they were included because they measured related components. Many studies used convenience or opportunity samples rather than representative samples. The review did not examine the strength of associations between health literacy components and behaviour.
Declared interests
There was no funding source, and the authors report no declarations of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that low health literacy caused poor protective behaviour. The review found no study linking measured health literacy to outbreak outcomes, and most studies measured only proxies such as knowledge or attitudes.