The level of Health Literacy among students of Bergamo: observational study

Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Recent studies have highlighted how Health Literacy (HL) represents one of the fundamental determinants of health for people's well-being. Despite this concept being widely approved by the scientific community, research trends focus on outcomes such as misinformation and HL deficiencies in individuals with mental health issues, chronic diseases, drug use and abuse, rather than evaluating its actual level in the population. Therefore, a broader and more generalized analysis is needed to support the European community in assessing HL levels in the population, in order to demonstrate how increasing HL can improve both individuals' health and the healthcare system.

AIM:
To measure HL competences in a sample of fifth-year students attending high schools, aged between 17 and 19 years old.

METHODS:
This descriptive monocentric study was conducted between September 15th and 30th, 2021, and used the HLS Q-16 questionnaire (European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire) validated by Lorini et al. (2019) to assess the level of HL.

RESULTS:
The results are consistent with those obtained by Lorini et al. (2019) and indicate that more than half of the sample has problematic or inadequate HL levels.

CONCLUSION:
It is essential to continue research in this unexplored area in Italy and to objectively and demonstrably analyze potential corrections that can remedy the lack of HL in citizens.​