Department of Health Care Management and Berlin Centre for Health Economics Research (BerlinHECOR), Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Dec 13;19(24):16711. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192416711.
Health literacy (HL) is a competence to find, understand, appraise, and apply health information and is necessary to maneuver the health system successfully. People with low HL are, e.g., under the risk of poor quality and safety of care. Previous research has shown that low HL is more prevalent among, e.g., people with lower social status, lower educational level, and among the elderly. In Germany, people with substitutive private health insurance (PHI) account for 11% of the population and tend to have a higher level of education and social status, but in-detail assessments of their HL are missing so far. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the HL of PHI insureds in Germany, and to analyze their assessment of the health system according to their HL level. In 2018, 20,000 PHI insureds were invited to participate in a survey, which contained the HLS-EU-Q16, and items covering patient characteristics and the World Health Organization health systems framework goals (e.g., access, quality, safety, responsiveness). Low HL was found for 46.2% of respondents and was more prevalent, e.g., among men and insureds with a low subjective social status. The health system performance was perceived poorer by respondents with low HL. Future initiatives to strengthen health systems should focus on promoting HL.
健康素养 (HL) 是一种查找、理解、评估和应用健康信息的能力，是成功驾驭医疗体系的必要条件。健康素养低的人，例如，面临着医疗质量和安全低下的风险。先前的研究表明，健康素养较低的人群包括社会地位较低、教育水平较低和老年人等。在德国，拥有替代私人健康保险 (PHI) 的人占人口的 11%，他们往往具有更高的教育水平和社会地位，但迄今为止，对他们的 HL 还缺乏详细评估。因此，本研究旨在调查德国 PHI 受保人的 HL，并根据其 HL 水平分析他们对医疗体系的评估。2018 年，邀请了 20,000 名 PHI 受保人参与一项调查，该调查包含了 HLS-EU-Q16 和涵盖患者特征和世界卫生组织医疗体系框架目标（例如，可及性、质量、安全性、响应性）的项目。46.2%的受访者被发现 HL 较低，例如，男性和主观社会地位较低的受保人。HL 较低的受访者对医疗体系的绩效评价较差。未来加强医疗体系的举措应重点关注促进 HL。
