Tessa Jansen|Jany Rademakers|Geeke Waverijn|Robert Verheij|Richard H. Osborne|Monique Heijmans
The role of health literacy in explaining the association between educational attainment and the use of out-of-hours primary care services in chronically ill people: a survey study
Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research|Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research|Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research|Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research|Deakin University|Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research
low socioeconomic status ses persistently associated poor health suboptimal use healthcare services unplanned healthcare use suboptimal use emergency acute healthcare services may increase health inequalities due late diagnosis lack continuity care given health literacy associated healthcare utilisation education attainment sought explore whether health literacy related use outofhours ooh primary care services pcss additionally aimed study whether extent health literacy accounts association education ooh psc use survey including measures education attainment health literacy assessed means dutch version ninedimension health literacy questionnaire use pcs conducted among sample adults diagnosed somatic chronic condition netherlands response 763 n 1811 conducted linear logistic regression analyses examine associations education level pcs use past year performed mediation analyses assess whether association education pcs use partly explained different aspects health literacy adjusted models patient characteristics age morbidity higher education attainment associated higher scores health literacy aspects appraisal health information navigating healthcare system additionally appraisal navigating healthcare system partially accounted educational differences pcs use finally higher appraisal health information scores associated higher pcs utilisation several aspects health literacy demonstrated relate pcs use partly accounted educational differences herein accordingly developing health literacy within individuals communities may help reduce inappropriate pcs use among people low education