IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/hepoli/v120y2016i9p1087-1094.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Italian Health Literacy Project: Insights from the assessment of health literacy skills in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Palumbo, Rocco
  • Annarumma, Carmela
  • Adinolfi, Paola
  • Musella, Marco
  • Piscopo, Gabriella

Abstract

Inadequate health literacy, namely the problematic individual’s ability to navigate the health care system, has been depicted as a silent epidemic affecting a large part of the world population. Inadequate health literacy has been variously found to be a predictor of patient disengagement, inappropriateness of care, increased health care costs, and higher mortality rates. However, to date the evidence on the prevalence of limited health literacy is heterogeneous; moreover, studies dealing with this topic show a pronounced geographical concentration. To contribute in filling these gaps, this paper investigates health literacy skills in Italy. Drawing on the European Health Literacy Survey (HLS-EU), a tool to measure self-perceived levels of health literacy was administered to a representative sample of Italian citizens. A stepwise regression analysis allowed to shed light on the determinants and consequences of limited health literacy. Findings suggested that inadequate health literacy is a prevailing problem in Italy, even though it has been overlooked by both policy makers and health care practitioners. Financial deprivation was found to be a significant predictor of inadequate health literacy. Low health literate patients reported higher hospitalization rates and greater use of health services. As compared with the European Countries, Italy showed some peculiarities in terms of health literacy levels and socio-demographic determinants of health literacy, which provide with intriguing insights for policy making.

Suggested Citation

  • Palumbo, Rocco & Annarumma, Carmela & Adinolfi, Paola & Musella, Marco & Piscopo, Gabriella, 2016. "The Italian Health Literacy Project: Insights from the assessment of health literacy skills in Italy," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(9), pages 1087-1094.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:120:y:2016:i:9:p:1087-1094
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2016.08.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851016302123
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.healthpol.2016.08.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ohnishi, Mayumi & Nakamura, Keiko & Takano, Takehito, 2005. "Improvement in maternal health literacy among pregnant women who did not complete compulsory education: policy implications for community care services," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 157-164, May.
    2. Coltman, Tim & Devinney, Timothy M. & Midgley, David F. & Venaik, Sunil, 2008. "Formative versus reflective measurement models: Two applications of formative measurement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(12), pages 1250-1262, December.
    3. Rademakers, Jany & Nijman, Jessica & Brabers, Anne E.M. & de Jong, Judith D. & Hendriks, Michelle, 2014. "The relative effect of health literacy and patient activation on provider choice in the Netherlands," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 200-206.
    4. Barbara K Kondilis & Ismene J Kiriaze & Anastasia P Athanasoulia & Matthew E Falagas, 2008. "Mapping Health Literacy Research in the European Union: A Bibliometric Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(6), pages 1-6, June.
    5. Mak, Benise & Woo, Jean & Bowling, Ann & Wong, Florens & Chau, Pui Hing, 2011. "Health care prioritization in ageing societies: Influence of age, education, health literacy and culture," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 219-233.
    6. Mak, Benise & Woo, Jean & Bowling, Ann & Wong, Florens & Chau, Pui Hing, 2011. "Health care prioritization in ageing societies: Influence of age, education, health literacy and culture," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(2-3), pages 219-233, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cecilia Smaniotto & Anna Saramin & Laura Brunelli & Maria Parpinel, 2022. "Insights and Next Challenges for the Italian Educational System to Teach Sustainability in a Global Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Loredana Covolo & Miriam Guana & Guglielmo Bonaccorsi & Laura Brunelli & Silvana Castaldi & Antonella De Donno & Alessandra Mereu & Marco Verani & Umberto Gelatti, 2022. "Exploring the Online Health Information-Seeking Behavior in a Sample of Italian Women: The “SEI Donna” Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-18, April.
    3. Liobikienė, Genovaitė & Bernatonienė, Jurga, 2018. "The determinants of access to information on the Internet and knowledge of health related topics in European countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(12), pages 1348-1355.
    4. Francesca Gallè & Patrizia Calella & Christian Napoli & Fabrizio Liguori & Eduardo Alfonso Parisi & Giovanni Battista Orsi & Giorgio Liguori & Giuliana Valerio, 2020. "Are Health Literacy and Lifestyle of Undergraduates Related to the Educational Field? An Italian Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-9, September.
    5. Carmela Annarumma & Rocco Palumbo & Ersilia Troiano & Stefania Vezzosi, 2017. "Una misurazione "euristica" dell?alfabetizzazione alimentare: alcuni spunti esplorativi," MECOSAN, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(102), pages 61-83.
    6. Palumbo, Rocco & Adinolfi, Paola & Annarumma, Carmela & Catinello, Giuseppina & Tonelli, Marco & Troiano, Ersilia & Vezzosi, Stefania & Manna, Rosalba, 2019. "Unravelling the food literacy puzzle: Evidence from Italy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 104-115.
    7. Rocco Palumbo, 2017. "Toward a new conceptualization of health care services to inspire public health. Public national health service as a “common pool of resources”," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 14(3), pages 271-287, September.
    8. Patrizio Zanobini & Chiara Lorini & Vieri Lastrucci & Valentina Minardi & Valentina Possenti & Maria Masocco & Giorgio Garofalo & Giovanna Mereu & Guglielmo Bonaccorsi, 2021. "Health Literacy, Socio-Economic Determinants, and Healthy Behaviours: Results from a Large Representative Sample of Tuscany Region, Italy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-11, November.
    9. Andrea Klinovszky & Orsolya Papp-Zipernovszky & Norbert Buzás, 2021. "Building a House of Skills—A Study of Functional Health Literacy and Numeracy among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in Hungary," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-14, February.
    10. Elio Borgonovi & Paola Adinolfi & Rocco Palumbo & Gabriella Piscopo, 2018. "Framing the Shades of Sustainability in Health Care: Pitfalls and Perspectives from Western EU Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-20, November.
    11. Chiara Lorini & Veronica Velasco & Guglielmo Bonaccorsi & Kevin Dadaczynski & Orkan Okan & Patrizio Zanobini & Luca P. Vecchio, 2022. "Validation of the COVID-19 Digital Health Literacy Instrument in the Italian Language: A Cross-Sectional Study of Italian University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-17, May.
    12. Josefin Wångdahl & Per Lytsy & Lena Mårtensson & Ragnar Westerling, 2018. "Poor health and refraining from seeking healthcare are associated with comprehensive health literacy among refugees: a Swedish cross-sectional study," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 63(3), pages 409-419, April.
    13. Elena Guggiari & Rebecca Jaks & Fabian Marc Pascal Berger & Dunja Nicca & Saskia Maria De Gani, 2021. "Health Literacy in the Canton of Zurich: First Results of a Representative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-12, December.
    14. Jim Broch Skarli, 2021. "Creating or Destructing Value in Use? Handling Cognitive Impairments in Co-Creation with Serious and Chronically Ill Users," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dorte Gyrd‐Hansen, 2018. "Is there additional value attached to health gains at the end of life? A revisit," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 71-75, January.
    2. Francesca Gallè & Patrizia Calella & Christian Napoli & Fabrizio Liguori & Eduardo Alfonso Parisi & Giovanni Battista Orsi & Giorgio Liguori & Giuliana Valerio, 2020. "Are Health Literacy and Lifestyle of Undergraduates Related to the Educational Field? An Italian Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-9, September.
    3. Gill, Betty & Griffin, Barbara & Hesketh, Beryl, 2013. "Changing expectations concerning life-extending treatment: The relevance of opportunity cost," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 66-73.
    4. Jean Woo, 2017. "Designing Fit for Purpose Health and Social Services for Ageing Populations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-8, April.
    5. Bhumika Gupta & Salil K. Sen, 2019. "Carbon Capture Usage and Storage with Scale-up: Energy Finance through Bricolage Deploying the Co-integration Methodology," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(6), pages 146-153.
    6. Rajesh Srivastava & Thomas Tang, 2015. "Coping Intelligence: Coping Strategies and Organizational Commitment Among Boundary Spanning Employees," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 525-542, September.
    7. Claudio Vitari & Elisabetta Raguseo, 2016. "Big data value and financial performance: an empirical investigation [Digital data, dynamic capability and financial performance: an empirical investigation in the era of Big Data]," Post-Print halshs-01923271, HAL.
    8. Joseph A Crawford & Sarah Dawkins & Angela Martin & Gemma Lewis, 2020. "Putting the leader back into authentic leadership: Reconceptualising and rethinking leaders," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 45(1), pages 114-133, February.
    9. Samy Katumba & Julia Kadt & Mark Orkin & Paul Fatti, 2022. "Construction of a Reflective Quality of Life Index for Gauteng Province in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 373-408, November.
    10. Determann, Domino & Lambooij, Mattijs S. & de Bekker-Grob, Esther W. & Hayen, Arthur P. & Varkevisser, Marco & Schut, Frederik T. & Wit, G. Ardine de, 2016. "What health plans do people prefer? The trade-off between premium and provider choice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 10-18.
    11. Ghulam Raza Sargani & Yuansheng Jiang & Abbas Ali Chandio & Yun Shen & Zhao Ding & Asif Ali, 2023. "Impacts of livelihood assets on adaptation strategies in response to climate change: evidence from Pakistan," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 6117-6140, July.
    12. Justina GineikienÄ—, 2013. "Consumer Nostalgia Literature Review And An Alternative Measurement Perspective," Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University, vol. 4(2).
    13. Sarker, Moniruzzaman & Mohd-Any, Amrul Asraf & Kamarulzaman, Yusniza, 2021. "Validating a consumer-based service brand equity (CBSBE) model in the airline industry," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    14. Flavio Boccia & Pasquale Sarnacchiaro, 2018. "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumer Preference: A Structural Equation Analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(2), pages 151-163, March.
    15. Möhlmann, Mareike, 2021. "Unjustified trust beliefs: Trust conflation on sharing economy platforms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(3).
    16. Anna Lejpras & Andreas Stephan, 2011. "Locational conditions, cooperation, and innovativeness: evidence from research and company spin-offs," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 46(3), pages 543-575, June.
    17. Morais, Manoela & Binotto, Erlaine & Borges, João Augusto Rossi, 2017. "Identifying beliefs underlying successors’ intention to take over the farm," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 48-58.
    18. Zhuomin Shi & Zaoying Kuang & Ning Yang, 2017. "Why it is hard to explain Chinese face?—FACE measurement models and its influence on ecological product preference," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-22, December.
    19. John S. Hill & Myung-Su Chae & Jinseo Park, 2012. "The Effects of Geography and Infrastructure on Economic Development and International Business Involvement," Journal of Infrastructure Development, India Development Foundation, vol. 4(2), pages 91-113, December.
    20. José Manuel Cabello & Francisco Ruiz & Blanca Pérez-Gladish, 2021. "An Alternative Aggregation Process for Composite Indexes: An Application to the Heritage Foundation Economic Freedom Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 153(2), pages 443-467, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:120:y:2016:i:9:p:1087-1094. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.