Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 3695 Cullen Boulevard Room 126, Houston, TX, 77204-5022, USA.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2019 Feb;6(1):182-188. doi: 10.1007/s40615-018-0512-z. Epub 2018 Jul 6.
There is a considerable body of research on health literacy in adult healthcare settings, mostly among at-risk clinical populations. However, much less is known about health literacy among youth transitioning to adulthood, including college students. Despite the protective effects of higher levels of education, some college students might have other risk factors for low health literacy (i.e., minority status). Hence, the purpose of the present study was to explore health literacy in an ethnically diverse public urban university. Although a majority of the students performed within the adequate range, we observed a subset of Hispanic and foreign students with lower health literacy, particularly in the domain of numeracy. Our preliminary results suggest that, contrary to common belief, there exists a vulnerable subpopulation of college students that have difficulty understanding and using health-related information. Health professionals should be alert to possible low health literacy among college students that may interfere with communication of vital health-related information and decision-making.
有相当多的研究关注成人医疗保健环境中的健康素养，主要集中在高风险的临床人群中。然而，对于向成年期过渡的青年，包括大学生的健康素养，人们知之甚少。尽管较高的教育水平具有保护作用，但一些大学生可能存在其他导致健康素养低下的风险因素（即少数民族身份）。因此，本研究的目的是探索一个种族多样化的公立城市大学的健康素养。尽管大多数学生的表现处于适当的范围内，但我们观察到一部分西班牙裔和外国学生的健康素养较低，尤其是在计算能力方面。我们的初步结果表明，与普遍看法相反，大学生中存在一个易受伤害的亚人群，他们在理解和使用与健康相关的信息方面存在困难。卫生专业人员应该警惕大学生中可能存在的健康素养低下的情况，这可能会干扰重要的与健康相关的信息交流和决策。
