Shatenko Sergiy, Harder Samuel, Gair Jane
Island Medical Program, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada.
Can Med Educ J. 2020 Dec 7;11(6):e72-e78. doi: 10.36834/cmej.67817. eCollection 2020 Dec.
Health literacy is an increasingly important topic in healthcare given that low health literacy is widely prevalent and linked to poorer health outcomes and higher healthcare costs. We sought to determine if a Mini-Med School delivered by medical students could prove to be an effective intervention to improve health literacy in the elderly.
This study took place in the context of the University of British Columbia Medical Doctorate Undergraduate Program's Flexible and Enhanced Learning course. It aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a Mini-Med School lecture series as an intervention to increase health literacy in 24 volunteer participants from the University of Victoria Retirees Association. This was a cross sectional study comparing health literacy pre- and post-intervention using the validated Health Literacy Questionnaire.
There was a statistically significant improvement in seven of nine scales of health literacy when participants repeated the Health Literacy Questionnaire six weeks post-intervention as well as positive outcomes from both a student learning and community outreach perspective.
This study demonstrates that a Mini-Med School program is an effective way to increase health literacy; adds to the minimal research surrounding Mini-Med Schools; and should further encourage Canadian medical schools to use Mini-Medical Schools as a method of engagement and advocacy with their communities.
鉴于健康素养低下普遍存在且与较差的健康结果及更高的医疗成本相关，健康素养在医疗保健领域正成为一个日益重要的话题。我们试图确定由医学生开展的小型医学院是否能被证明是提高老年人健康素养的有效干预措施。
本研究在英属哥伦比亚大学医学博士本科项目的灵活强化学习课程背景下进行。其旨在评估小型医学院系列讲座作为一种干预措施，对来自维多利亚大学退休人员协会的24名志愿者提高健康素养的有效性。这是一项横断面研究，使用经过验证的健康素养问卷比较干预前后的健康素养情况。
当参与者在干预六周后再次填写健康素养问卷时，九个健康素养量表中的七个在统计学上有显著改善，并且从学生学习和社区推广的角度来看都有积极成果。
本研究表明小型医学院项目是提高健康素养的有效方式；增加了围绕小型医学院的极少研究；并应进一步鼓励加拿大医学院将小型医学院作为与社区进行互动和宣传的一种方式。
