Levels of health literacy among Australians with chronic conditions engaging with healthcare providers and navigating the health system

Full description

Health
literacy plays an important role in improving person-centred care and
population health outcomes. With the rate of chronic conditions increasing
globally, it is important to understand the associations between levels of
health literacy and the ability to navigate and engage with the healthcare
system.

A
39-item survey was designed and distributed to Australian adults aged ≥ 18.
Participants were recruited between 29 November and 14 December 2018.

In
addition to researcher-devised and consumer-devised questions, items about
self-reported health status, health conditions and PHI were drawn from the
National Health Survey. Questions about financial stress were derived from the
Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. Questions
about care affordability were drawn from the Commonwealth Fund survey and
questions about accessibility were sourced from the Menzies-Nous surveys. Questions about diagnosed chronic conditions were
defined by the AIHW. Minor post-weighting
adjustments were made by age, sex and state to ensure the data accurately
reflected population distribution according to the Australian Bureau of
Statistics in June 2018. Data were analysed using descriptive and
inferential statistics (IBM SPSS Statistics V24). Weighting was undertaken
through a survey raking technique using the anesrake package in R.

The full survey questions are included in file 2, and with codes that correspond to the datasheet.