The Italian Pilot Of The Health Literacy Survey 2019 In The Cuore Project For The Who Action Network On Measuring Population And Organizational Health Literacy (M-Pohl)

Background: Health Literacy-HL is an important determinant to improve and maintain health and quality of life during life course. HL implies people’s knowledge, motivation, competencies to access, understand, appraise, apply information to make judgements and decisions in everyday life concerning healthcare, disease prevention, health promotion. Thanks to the funds of the Italian Center for Diseases Control and Prevention-CCM of the Ministry of Health, Italy joined the WHO Action Network on Measuring Population and Organizational Health Literacy-M-POHL for collecting comparable data on HL in order to measure and promote citizens’ HL among MS. Objective: A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of the M-PHOL international questionnaire HLS-EU using the Italian version of the short form (HLS-EU-Q16 items), during the CUORE Project-Health Examination Survey 2018-2019. Methods: One hundred people aged 35-74 years, resident in the South of Italy, were face-to-face interviewed following consecutive access to the HES. The 4 Likert-type responses were grouped in 2 classes: 0 (zero) for fairly difficult/very difficult and 1 for fairly easy/very easy. According to the HLS-EU-Q16 sum score (range: 0–16), three levels of HL were defined: ‘Inadequate’ (0–8), ‘Problematic’ (9–12), ‘Sufficient’ (13–16). HL mean score and standard deviation-SD were elaborated together with prevalence of the three HL levels. Socio-demographics conditions, lifestyles, risk factors were measured during the HES. Means and prevalence were age and gender standardised using the European standard population. Results: Ninety-eight persons completed the questionnaire (47 men, 51 women); HL mean score was 13.1 (SD=3.2) with no sex difference; prevalence of persons with ‘Inadequate’ HL was 11.2%, ‘Problematic’ 26.5%, ‘Sufficient’ 62.3%. For persons with the highest educational level (Tertiary) the highest prevalence was in the ‘Sufficient’ HL (20.5%); in the same HL category, only 3.4% was the prevalence of those with the lowest educational level (Primary). Hypertension was lower in the ‘Sufficient’ HL category (37.9% vs. 45.1% in the ‘Inadequate’ HL). Smoking habit decreased with increasing HL level (21.3%, 19.0%, 5.4% in the three HL categories, respectively). Conclusion: More than one third of interviewed adult population had ‘Inadequate’/’Problematic’ HL. Preliminary results from the Italian pilot of the HLS-EU-Q16 within the HES of the CUORE Project suggest that the survey is an important opportunity for the possibility of linking HL data with HES measured data. A national survey on HL will be implemented in the Italian general population in the framework of the M-POHL network.