Sense of security during COVID-19 isolation improved with better health literacy - A cross-sectional study.
Brynja Ingadottir, Bjork Bragadottir, Sigridur Zoëga and 3 others
PMID 37173221WHAT IT FOUND
People in Iceland who felt more secure during their first-wave COVID-19 isolation were those with better health literacy.
On a six-point scale, those with sufficient health literacy scored about one point higher than those with inadequate literacy.
Key findings
01Sense of security during isolation was associated with health literacy, with a correlation of rho=.31 (p < .001).
02After controlling for age, gender, household size, education, risk group and pre-COVID health status, participants with problematic health literacy scored 0.6 points higher on the six-point sense of security scale than those with inadequate health literacy (p = .021).
03Participants with sufficient health literacy scored almost 1.1 points higher on the six-point sense of security scale than those with inadequate health literacy (p < .001).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The design is cross-sectional, so it cannot show that higher health literacy caused greater sense of security; the direction of association is unknown. The sense of security instrument had not been tested in this population or setting before. Data on sense of security and health literacy were skewed, which may mean people with lower scores were less likely to respond. The independent variables in the regression explained only about 13% of the variation in sense of security, leaving most of it unaccounted for. The study was conducted during the exceptional first wave of the pandemic in Iceland with universal telephone surveillance, so the results may not generalise to other contexts. Information was not available on whether participants isolated alone or with others, which could have affected their sense of security. Of 1554 eligible participants, 617 (40%) did not respond.
Declared interests
The work was supported by the University of Iceland Research Fund, the Icelandic Nurses' Association Research Fund and Landspitali University Hospital Science Fund. The authors declared no competing interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude from this study that improving a patient's health literacy will increase their sense of security. The design is cross-sectional and the two were measured at the same time, so the study shows an association, not a cause-and-effect relationship.