Allison Bourne|Shehzaad Peerbux|Rebecca Jessup|Margaret Staples|Alison Beauchamp|Rachelle Buchbinder
Health literacy profile of recently hospitalised patients in the private hospital setting: a cross sectional survey using the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ)
Cabrini Hospital|Cabrini Hospital|Cabrini Hospital|Cabrini Hospital|Sunshine Hospital|Western Health|University of Melbourne|Monash University|The Alfred Hospital
health service providers understand attend health literacy needs population view known association low health literacy poorer health outcomes study aimed determine health literacy profile patients treated large private hospital melbourne australia associations profile socioeconomic position health behaviours health status use hospital services mailed survey sent 9173 people aged 18 years hospital admission february october 2014 included health literacy questionnaire hlq multidimensional tool comprising nine independent scales sociodemographic clinical questions respondents nonrespondents also extracted residential postcode admission follow details patient administrative services database differences demographic socioeconomic hospital use patterns respondents nonrespondents analysed using descriptive statistics regressiontests used identify differences health literacy socioeconomic subgroups magnitude differences determined using cohens effect sizes 3121 respondents response rate 35 excluding 154 returned invitations majority born australia 746 living areas high socioeconomic advantage respondents slightly older nonrespondents mean sd age 656 170 versus 606 208 years included proportionately less females 519 versus 591 similar regard sociodemographic factors health service use participants speak english home reported lower scores across several hlq scales including measure health provider support engagement smoked reported low physical activity lower scores actively managing health relationship seen hlq scale scores use hospital services based upon health literacy profile large cohort patients attending large private hospital found relationship hlq scale scores use hospital services however identify significant health literacy needs particularly among patients whose primary language home english patients needing assistance completing survey identifying ways addressing needs may improve patient outcomes