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Health literacy and its determinants among higher education students in the Alentejo region of southern Portugal

2024-09Artigo científico Acesso aberto
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dc.contributor.authorRosário, Jorge
dc.contributor.authorDias, Sara Simões
dc.contributor.authorDias, Sónia
dc.contributor.authorPedro, Ana Rita
dc.contributor.institutionEscola Nacional de Saúde Pública (ENSP)
dc.contributor.institutionComprehensive Health Research Centre (CHRC) - Pólo ENSP
dc.contributor.institutionCentro de Investigação em Saúde Pública (CISP/PHRC)
dc.contributor.pblPLOS - Public Library of Science
dc.date.accessioned2024-10-15T22:52:12Z
dc.date.available2024-10-15T22:52:12Z
dc.date.issued2024-09
dc.descriptionFunding Information: This research was funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) through national funds for the REAL Associated Laboratory in Translation and Innovation for Global Health (LA/P/0117/2020). No additional external funding was received for this study. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2024 Rosário et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
dc.description.abstractIntroduction The capacity of higher education students to comprehend and act on health information is a pivotal factor in attaining favourable health outcomes and well-being. Assessing the health literacy of these students is essential in order to develop targeted interventions and provide informed health support. The aim of this study was to identify the level of health literacy and to analyse its relationship with determinants such as socio-demographic variables, chronic disease, perceived health status, and perceived availability of money for expenses among higher education students in the Alentejo region of southern Portugal. Methodology An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted between 22 June and 12 September 2023. An online structured questionnaire consisting of the Portuguese version of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire—16 items (HLS-EU-PTQ16), including socio-demographic data, presence of chronic diseases, perceived health status, and availability of money for expenses. Data were analysed using independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, post-hoc Gabriel’s test, and multivariate logistic regression analyses at a significance level of 0.05. Regression models were used to investigate the relationship between health literacy and various determinants. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Évora, and all participants gave written informed consent. Results Analysis of the HLS-EU-PT-Q16 showed that 82.3% of the 1228 students sampled had limited health literacy. The mean health literacy score was 19.3 ± 12.8 on a scale of 0 to 50, with subscores of 19.4 ± 13.9 for health care, 19.1 ± 13.1 for disease prevention, and 19.0 ± 13.7 for health promotion. Significant associations were found between health literacy and several determinants. Higher health literacy was associated with the absence of chronic diseases. Regression analysis showed that lower health literacy was associated with not attending health-related courses, not living with a health professional, perceiving limited availability of money for expenses, and having an unsatisfactory health status. Conclusion This study improves the understanding of health literacy levels among higher education students in Alentejo, Portugal, and identifies key determinants. Higher education students in this region had relatively low levels of health literacy, which may have a negative impact on their health outcomes. These findings highlight the need for interventions to improve health literacy among higher education students and to address the specific needs of high-risk subgroups in the Alentejo.en
dc.description.versionpublishersversion
dc.description.versionpublished
dc.format.extent781212
dc.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pone.0309806
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.otherPURE: 101356513
dc.identifier.otherPURE UUID: 41c8cb47-0dbe-4426-84a3-5be95a0ef03f
dc.identifier.otherScopus: 85204909856
dc.identifier.otherPubMed: 39316571
dc.identifier.otherPubMedCentral: PMC11421802
dc.identifier.otherWOS: 001319382600012
dc.identifier.otherORCID: /0000-0001-5085-0685/work/169652114
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10362/173543
dc.identifier.urlhttps://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85204909856
dc.language.isoeng
dc.peerreviewedyes
dc.subjectGeneral
dc.titleHealth literacy and its determinants among higher education students in the Alentejo region of southern Portugalen
dc.title.subtitlea cross-sectional surveyen
dc.typejournal article
degois.publication.issue9
degois.publication.titlePLoS ONE
degois.publication.volume19
dspace.entity.typePublication
rcaap.rightsopenAccess

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