Health literacy for children and families

Health Literacy Levels of Patients With Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and Their Parents

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to reveal the relationship between the health literacy (HL) levels of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and their parents, and the general health status and physical performance of the children.

METHODS

This study included 79 children aged 9-18 years with a diagnosis of JIA and one of their parents. HL levels were evaluated with the Turkish version of the Health Literacy for School-Aged Children and Turkish Health Literacy-32 (THL-32) for children and Adult Health Literacy Scale (AHLS) for their parents. The Childhood Health Assessment Questionnaire (CHAQ), 6-minute walk test (6-MWT), 10-meter walking test (10-MWT) and 10-stair climbing test (10-SCT) was used to evaluate the children. Juvenile Arthritis Biopsychosocial Questionnaire (JAB-Q) was used to assess the children's and parents' psychosocial status and perception of health.

RESULTS

HL levels of patients with JIA were 16.5% low HL, %55.7 moderate HL and 27.8% high HL. According to THL-32 scale score, HL level of parents were as follows: inadequate, 3.8%; problematic, 22.8%; sufficient, 34.2%; and excellent, 39.2%. Children's HL levels increase positively as they get older, and no significant relationship was found with other parameters. The AHLS, CHAQ and JAB-Q scores were better in the group with higher education levels of the parents. No statistically significant association was found between the HL of the children and that of the parents.

CONCLUSION

In our study, it was found that the high education levels of the parents positively affected the quality of life and physical condition of their children and parental HL levels. In addition, it was shown that the HL levels of children with JIA were not statistically related to other parameters.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

Children diagnosed with JIA and one of their parents actively participated in the study. Feedback from children and families provided important information about obtaining and using HL information before and during the study. The importance of therapy programs and information focusing on the patient and their family, as well as the inter-multidisciplinary approach, in combating a chronic disease at an early age was reinforced by the feedback received from patients and their families.

Medicine education in a pediatric oncology setting: What can we do better?

Background

When patients feel more involved in their care, there tends to be a higher rate of adherence and improved health outcomes. This can be more difficult to achieve in pediatric care since children have varying levels of medicine comprehension and parents are an integral component of the child's learning.

Objectives

This study aimed to determine the satisfaction of children and families being treated for cancer with their medicine education and determine areas for improvement.

Methods

Semi-structured interviews were conducted over six months (2016/2017) with families and children with cancer, ages 7 to 19 years, (n = 6) and healthcare providers (n = 9) to assess the current method of medicine education delivery.

Results

Families reported increased stress and anxiety levels at the time of diagnosis, negatively impacting their information retention. Patients, families, and healthcare providers reported inconsistent education delivery, including varying amounts of information throughout the treatment and inconsistencies between providers, such as medication names. Parents mentioned a desire for a more consistent and standardized delivery of medicine education, which was found to be helped by a pharmacist-led approach. Receiving supplemental written materials to support verbal education helped with learners' understanding and information retention. Ensuring that the parents are comfortable and familiar with the medicines is a significant component of medicine teaching in pediatric care because they are often responsible for the child's medications and their children see them as a trusted source of information. Ensuring parents' needs are met translates to improved medicine adherence for children with cancer.

Conclusion

Medicine education should occur sometime post-diagnosis once the patient/family has had time to adjust and the anxiety lessens. Medicine education should be given as consistently as possible by a recurring member of the care team, ideally the pharmacist. The learners' ability to understand and retain information should be individually assessed to determine the delivery of medicine education. Motivating and empowering learners, including children, through frequent medicine encounters could help improve adherence, patient health outcomes, and quality of life and make them more self-managing throughout life.

Improving health literacy using the power of digital communications to achieve better health outcomes for patients and practitioners

Digital communication tools have demonstrated significant potential to improve health literacy which ultimately leads to better health outcomes. In this article, we examine the power of digital communication tools such as mobile health apps, telemedicine and online health information resources to promote health and digital literacy. We outline evidence that digital tools facilitate patient education, self-management and empowerment possibilities. In addition, digital technology is optimising the potential for improved clinical decision-making, treatment options and communication among providers. We also explore the challenges and limitations associated with digital health literacy, including issues related to access, reliability and privacy. We propose leveraging digital communication tools is key to optimising engagement to enhance health literacy across demographics leading to transformation of healthcare delivery and driving better outcomes for all.

Elaboration and validity of the Instrumento para Avaliação de Modelos metodológicos voltados ao Desenvolvimento de Tecnologias

OBJECTIVE

to elaborate and validate the Instrumento para Avaliação de Modelos metodológicos voltados ao Desenvolvimento de Tecnologias.

METHODS

a methodological study, developed in three stages: instrument structuring through documentary research and researchers' expertise; instrument validity with a panel of 11 expert judge nurses; and instrument final composition.

RESULTS

the instrument, after validity by experts, consisted of 30 items, divided into the content (26 items) and appearance (four items) domains. In the initial instrument validity process, 11 items were modified and seven were withdrawn, as they had a percentage of agreement below 0.80. The instrument showed excellent internal consistency, with values greater than 0.90 in its psychometric criteria.

CONCLUSION

the instrument produced and validated aimed at assessing research methodological models for technological development showed good reliability, and may contribute to the methodological rigor of technological development research in nursing.

Exploring the Role of Pictograms in the Comprehension of Pain

Introduction

Pain is both difficult to see and to articulate and this is challenging for both patients and clinicians. The aim of this study was to develop and test pictograms to describe different pain qualities.

Methods

22 pictograms were developed for evaluation based on pain qualities of the short form McGill Pain Questionnaire, version 2 (SF-MPQ-2). An online matching survey was conducted and disseminated via social media in 2021.

Results

An overall matching of 66% or higher between pictogram and pain qualities descriptors was considered a proper matching. This study was carried out internationally (males = 57, age=41y.o. ±16; females = 155, age=41y.o.±17) and in Poland (males=49, age =35y.o.±17; females = 164, age=35y.o.±16). There were 14 pictograms that did not achieve 66% matching in any country. 8 pictograms mutually in all subgroups achieved a matching score of ≥66% regardless of geographic location, sex, income, or education level.

Discussion and Conclusions

These 8 pictograms can be used clinically once they have been redrawn to improve consistency, and future research in the design of pictograms representing pain qualities of the SF-MPQ-2 should focus on design improvements for the remaining 14 pain qualities with poor comprehensibility.

Agreement between parent reported and child self-reported sport-related concussion history: A brief report

This cross sectional investigation measured the agreement between parent report of their 8-14 year old child's sport-related concussion (SRC) history and their child's self-report of their own SRC history. Parent-child dyads (n = 405) within a youth contact sports (e.g., football, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer) setting participated in the study. Parents (6.2%) and 8.6% of children self-reported a history of at least one diagnosed SRC. We observed substantial agreement between the number of parent-reported and child self-reported SRCs (κ = 0.613, p ≤ .001). Partial agreement regarding the number of SRCs reported by both groups was also substantial (weighted κ = 0.693, p ≤ .001). Removing dyads where neither the parent nor the child reported a diagnosed SRC, sensitivity analyses revealed only fair agreement in parent-child SRC recall. These results indicate that parents and youth athletes overall accounts of their diagnosed SRC history correspond. However determining specifics (e.g., total concussion counts) may benefit from concurrent parent reports, or documented events in medical histories.

Readability of Online Foot and Ankle Surgery Patient Education Materials

Background. Online health education resources are frequently accessed by patients seeking information on orthopaedic conditions and procedures. The objectives of this study were to assess the readability of information provided by the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) and compare current levels of readability with previous online material. Methods. This study examined 115 articles classified as "Conditions" or "Treatments" on FootCareMD.org. Readability was assessed using the 6 readability assessment tools: Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Gunning Fog Score, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) Index, Coleman-Liau Index, and the Automated Readability Index. Results. The mean readability score across all metrics ranged from 9.1 to 12.1, corresponding to a 9th- to 12th-grade reading level, with a mean FKGL of 9.2 ± SD 1.1 (range: 6.3-15.0). No articles were written below the recommended US sixth-grade reading level, with only 3 articles at or below an eighth-grade level. Treatment articles had higher mean readability grade levels than condition articles (P = .03). Conclusion. Although the volume and quality of the AOFAS resource Web site has increased, readability of information has worsened since 2008 and remains higher than the recommended reading level for optimal comprehension by the general population.Levels of Evidence: Level IV:Retrospective quantitative analysis.

Do Children and Adolescents with Overweight or Obesity Adhere to the National Food-Based Dietary Guidelines in Greece?

Childhood obesity increases the risk for metabolic disorders, but is also related to nutritional deficiencies, such as anemia and hypovitaminosis D. Although children/adolescents with overweight/obesity may have higher energy intake, their diet quality and diversity may be low. The present study aimed to evaluate the consumption of foods against the national food-based dietary guidelines in children and adolescents with overweight or obesity in Greece. Sociodemographic, anthropometric and lifestyle data were collected from a sample of 1467 children 2–18 years old (962 obese, 505 overweight, 51.2% females) in 2014–2017. The results of this study show that the consumption of dairy products, fruit, vegetables, legumes and fish by children/adolescents with overweight or obesity was lower than the national recommendations (ranging from a minimum of 39.5% for fish, to a maximum of 75.5% for cereal/potato/rice). Only the consumption of meat/poultry was found to exceed the national recommendation (estimated coverage of 131.3%). Moreover, a large proportion of participants regularly consumed various unhealthy foods/beverages. The present findings indicate that the majority of children/adolescents with overweight/obesity do not comply with the national food-based dietary guidelines in Greece. The implementation of new strategies to promote healthy diets among children/adolescents with overweight/obesity are urgently required.