Using the Brief Health Literacy Screen in Chronic Care in French Hospital Settings: Content Validity of Patient and Healthcare Professional Reports

Abstract

Person-centered care has led healthcare professionals (HCPs) to be more attentive to patients’ ability to understand and apply health-related information, especially those with chronic conditions. The concept of health literacy (HL) is essential in understanding patients’ needs in routine care, but its measurement is still controversial, and few tools are validated in French. We therefore considered the brief health literacy screen (BHLS) for assessing patient-reported HL in chronic care settings, and also developed an HCP-reported version of the BHLS with the aim of using it as a research instrument to assess HCPs’ evaluation of patients’ HL levels. We assessed the content validity of the French translation of both the patient-reported and HCP-reported BHLS in chronic care within hospital settings, through cognitive interviews with patients and HCPs. We performed qualitative analysis on interview data using the survey response Tourangeau model. Our results show that the BHLS is easy and quick to administer, but some terms need to be adapted to the French chronic care settings. Health-related information was observed to be mainly communicated orally, hence a useful direction for future literacy measures would be to also address verbal HL.

Considering health literacy in cardiovascular disease management: a qualitative study on healthcare professionals’ and patients' perspectives

“…We aimed to interview participants with distinct characteristics in terms of disease (HF vs AMI) and HL level (adequate vs low). The latter was measured using the Brief Health Literacy Screening questionnaire (BHLS, (26)) validated in French hospital settings (27) within the context of the P-ILIADE study. Information letter was given at the inclusion in P-ILIADE study, oral consent for participating in the interview was obtained before the interview.…”

A importância do Letramento em Saúde na Atenção Primária: revisão integrativa da literatura

“…Além disso, LS tem emergido como um importante campo de pesquisa no cuidado crônico. Essa temática se tornou altamente defendida para dar suporte a serviços e profissionais da saúde em adaptar a comunicação escrita e oral para necessidades individuais (Abd-Rahim et al, 2021;Girão et al, 2021;Perrin et al, 2020).…”

“…Diante desse cenário, o déficit na capacidade para interpretar e utilizar informações em saúde pode repercutir na manutenção da doença crônica. Para pessoas que vivem com condições crônicas, LS é particularmente importante já que manejar tais condições envolvem interação com informações sobre a doença assim como com o diagnóstico, tratamento médico, mudanças de vida requisitadas e a interação com os profissionais de saúde e o sistema de saúde (Scortegagna et al, 2021;Perrin et al, 2020).…”

“…Para garantir a compreensão do paciente e romper com as barreiras do LS, os profissionais precisam utilizar tempo adequando para determinar o nível de entendimento dos pacientes considerando a reação emocional a informação e envolvendo a família e outros que podem auxiliar a prover saúde. No presente momento, não há instrumento padrão para ser usado na prática cotidiana e os profissionais da saúde adaptam a comunicação para suas percepções subjetivas acerca da compreensão dos pacientes (Wittenberg et al, 2018;Perrin et al, 2020).…”

Health Literacy in Patients’ Clinical Records of Hospital Settings: A Systematic Review

“…Numerous studies have aimed to develop and use specific instruments in a hospital setting. Perrin et al (2020) used the Brief Health Literacy Screen (BHLS) in chronic care in a French hospital, but it is unclear whether the BHLS was used as a routine measurement. Bourne et al (2018) measured HL levels in recently hospitalised patients using the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ).…”