@article{ref1,
title="Health literacy and recovery following a non-catastrophic road traffic injury",
journal="BMC public health",
year="2022",
author="Gopinath, Bamini and Jagnoor, Jagnoor and Kifley, Annette and Pozzato, Ilaria and Craig, Ashley and Cameron, Ian D.",
volume="22",
number="1",
pages="e1380-e1380",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Health literacy (HL) is rarely addressed in rehabilitation research and practice but can play a substantial role in the recovery process after an injury. We aimed to identify factors associated with low HL and its relationship with 6-month health outcomes in individuals recovering from a non-catastrophic road traffic injury. <br><br>METHODS: Four hundred ninety-three participants aged ≥17 years who had sustained a non-catastrophic injury in a land-transport crash, underwent a telephone-administered questionnaire. Information was obtained on socio-economic, pre-injury health and crash-related characteristics, and health outcomes (quality of life, pain related measures and psychological indices). Low HL was defined as scoring < 4 on either of the two scales of the Health Literacy Questionnaire that covered: ability to actively engage with healthcare providers ('Engagement' scale); and/or understanding health information well enough to know what to do ('Understanding' scale). <br><br>RESULTS: Of the 493, 16.9 and 18.7% scored < 4 on the 'Understanding' and 'Engagement' scale (i.e. had low HL), respectively. Factors that were associated with low HL as assessed by both scales were: having pre-injury disability and psychological conditions; lodging a third-party insurance claim; experiencing overwhelming/great perceived sense of danger/death during the crash; type of road user; low levels of social satisfaction; higher pain severity; pain catastrophizing; and psychological- and trauma-related distress. Low HL (assessed by both scales) was associated with poorer recovery outcomes over 6 months. In these longitudinal analyses, the strongest association was with disability (p < 0.0001), and other significant associations were higher levels of catastrophizing (p = 0.01), pain severity (p = 0.04), psychological- (p ≤ 0.02) and trauma-related distress (p = 0.003), lower quality of life (p ≤ 0.03) and physical functioning (p ≤ 0.01). <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: A wide spectrum of factors including claim status, pre-injury and psychological measures were associated with low HL in injured individuals. Our findings suggest that targeting low HL could help improve recovery outcomes after non-catastrophic injury.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1471-2458",
doi="10.1186/s12889-022-13707-7",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13707-7"
}