a Centre for Nutrition, Prevention and Health Services , National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) , Bilthoven , The Netherlands.
J Health Commun. 2013;18 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):172-84. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2013.825668.
Health literacy has been put forward as a potential mechanism explaining the well-documented relationship between education and health. However, little empirical research has been undertaken to explore this hypothesis. The present study aims to study whether health literacy could be a pathway by which level of education affects health status. Health literacy was measured by the Health Activities and Literacy Scale, using data from a subsample of 5,136 adults between the ages of 25 and 65 years, gathered within the context of the 2007 Dutch Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey. Linear regression analyses were used in separate models to estimate the extent to which health literacy mediates educational disparities in self-reported general health, physical health status, and mental health status as measured by the Short Form-12. Health literacy was found to partially mediate the association between low education and low self-reported health status. As such, improving health literacy may be a useful strategy for reducing disparities in health related to education, as health literacy appears to play a role in explaining the underlying mechanism driving the relationship between low level of education and poor health.
健康素养已被提出作为解释教育与健康之间存在明确关系的潜在机制。然而，很少有实证研究来探索这一假设。本研究旨在研究健康素养是否可以作为一个途径，通过该途径教育水平影响健康状况。健康素养使用健康活动和素养量表进行测量，该量表的数据来自 2007 年荷兰成人读写能力和生活技能调查中年龄在 25 至 65 岁之间的 5136 名成年人的子样本。线性回归分析分别用于估计健康素养在多大程度上可以调节自我报告的一般健康、身体健康状况和心理健康状况方面的教育差异，这些差异是由 12 项简短健康状况量表测量的。研究发现，健康素养部分调节了低教育与低自我报告健康状况之间的关联。因此，提高健康素养可能是减少与教育相关的健康差异的一种有效策略，因为健康素养似乎在解释低教育水平与不良健康之间关系的潜在机制方面发挥了作用。
