Schmidt Lisa, Götz Nina-Alexandra, Hannemann Niels, Babitsch Birgit
Department of New Public Health, Osnabrück University, Nelson-Mandela-Straße 13, D-49076 Osnabrück, Germany.
Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, Albert-Einstein-Str. 1, D-49076 Osnabrück, Germany.
Z Gesundh Wiss. 2023 Jan 21:1-12. doi: 10.1007/s10389-023-01827-2.
Health literacy is necessary to access, understand, assess, and apply information on COVID-19. Studies have shown that health literacy is unequally distributed across social groups. This study aimed to analyze the differences in COVID-19-related health literacy (hereinafter referred to as "COV-19-HL"), knowledge about COVID-19, and the assessment of the measures taken regarding the sociodemographic characteristics as well as the influence of COV-19-HL on knowledge and assessments.
The study used the data obtained from the cross-sectional online survey "Digital divide in relation to health literacy during the COVID-19 pandemic." The data covers 1570 participants aged ≥18 years in Germany between April 29, 2020 and May 8, 2020. To analyze the differences by way of sociodemographic variables, t-tests and analyses of variance were carried out. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine the effect of COV-19-HL on knowledge and the assessment of measures.
The overall COV-19-HL was high with an average value of 37.4 (with 50 representing the highest COV-19-HL). COV-19-HL and knowledge about COVID-19 were slightly lower in men, migrants, people with low subjective social status, and with low education. Government requirements and recommendations were rated as more effective by women, older people, and individuals with a chronic illness. The chance of better knowledge about COVID-19 and rating measures as effective increased with higher COV-19-HL.
The findings of this study show that COV-19-HL and knowledge about the virus are unequally distributed in Germany. Health communication should strengthen pandemic-related health literacy that is tailored to specific target groups.
健康素养对于获取、理解、评估和应用有关2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的信息至关重要。研究表明，健康素养在不同社会群体中的分布并不均衡。本研究旨在分析与COVID-19相关的健康素养（以下简称“COV-19-HL”）、关于COVID-19的知识、对针对社会人口学特征所采取措施的评估之间的差异，以及COV-19-HL对知识和评估的影响。
本研究使用了从横断面在线调查“COVID-19大流行期间健康素养方面的数字鸿沟”中获得的数据。数据涵盖了2020年4月29日至2020年5月8日期间德国1570名年龄≥18岁的参与者。为了通过社会人口学变量分析差异，进行了t检验和方差分析。使用多变量逻辑回归模型来确定COV-19-HL对知识和措施评估的影响。
总体COV-19-HL较高，平均值为37.4（最高COV-19-HL为50）。男性、移民、主观社会地位较低和教育程度较低的人群的COV-19-HL和关于COVID-19的知识略低。女性、老年人和患有慢性病的个体对政府要求和建议的评价更高。随着COV-19-HL的提高，对COVID-19有更好了解并认为措施有效的可能性增加。
本研究结果表明，在德国，COV-19-HL和关于该病毒的知识分布不均。健康传播应加强针对特定目标群体的与大流行相关的健康素养。
