IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i19p3771-d274104.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health Literacy among Non-Familial Caregivers of Older Adults: A Study Conducted in Tuscany (Italy)

Author

Listed:
  • Guglielmo Bonaccorsi

    (Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Viale GB Morgagni 48, 50134 Florence, Italy)

  • Francesca Pieralli

    (Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Viale GB Morgagni 48, 50134 Florence, Italy)

  • Maddalena Innocenti

    (School of Specialization in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, University of Florence, Viale GB Morgagni 48, 50134 Florence, Italy)

  • Chiara Milani

    (School of Specialization in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, University of Florence, Viale GB Morgagni 48, 50134 Florence, Italy)

  • Marco Del Riccio

    (School of Specialization in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, University of Florence, Viale GB Morgagni 48, 50134 Florence, Italy)

  • Martina Donzellini

    (Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Viale GB Morgagni 48, 50134 Florence, Italy)

  • Lorenzo Baggiani

    (AUSL Toscana Centro, Florence, Piazza Santa Maria Nuova 1, 50122 Florence, Italy)

  • Chiara Lorini

    (Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Viale GB Morgagni 48, 50134 Florence, Italy)

Abstract

Many older adults who live at home depend on a caregiver. When familial support cannot provide the necessary care, paid caregivers are frequently hired. Health literacy (HL) is the knowledge and competence required of people to meet the complex demands of health in modern society. The aim of this study is to assess the HL level of paid non-familial caregivers who were enrolled through two different sources: from the homes of assisted people in two Tuscan health districts (first sample) and during job interviews in a home care agency operating in Florence (second sample). The two different recruitment contexts allow us to provide a broader view of the phenomenon, presenting a picture of the HL level of those who are already working and those who are looking for a new job in this field. One-on-one face-to-face interviews, which include the administration of the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) to measure HL, were conducted. Recruitment resulted in 84 caregivers in the first sample and 68 in the second sample. In the first sample, the mean age was 51.2 ± 9 years; 94% of the participants were women. A high likelihood or likelihood of inadequate HL (i.e., a low level of HL) was found in 73.8% of cases. In the second sample, the mean age was 43.7 ± 11.5 years; 83.8% of the participants were women, and 80.9% had a low level of HL. In both samples, HL was statistically associated with the level of understanding of the Italian language. In conclusion, inadequate HL is an under-recognized problem among non-familial caregivers. Educational programs that aim to increase HL skills could be an effective approach to improving the qualification of informal healthcare professionals.

Suggested Citation

  • Guglielmo Bonaccorsi & Francesca Pieralli & Maddalena Innocenti & Chiara Milani & Marco Del Riccio & Martina Donzellini & Lorenzo Baggiani & Chiara Lorini, 2019. "Health Literacy among Non-Familial Caregivers of Older Adults: A Study Conducted in Tuscany (Italy)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-12, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:19:p:3771-:d:274104
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/19/3771/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/19/3771/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Carmen Andrade & Márcio Tavares & Hélia Soares & Fábio Coelho & Catarina Tomás, 2022. "Positive Mental Health and Mental Health Literacy of Informal Caregivers: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-12, November.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:19:p:3771-:d:274104. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.