Improving quality by involving patient. The role of health literacy in influencing patients’ behaviors

ABSTRACT

Health services’ quality relies on patients’ participation in the design and delivery of care. Inter alia, self-efficacy and awareness are paramount to realize the full potential of health services’ co-production. This paper investigates the effects of health literacy – i.e. the ability to access, understand, process, and use health information – on individual self-efficacy perceptions and awareness. A random sample of 591 Italian patients was built. The Newest Vital Sign (NVS) screening tool was used to measure individual health literacy skills; moreover, a self-reporting survey was designed to assess: (1) self-efficacy perceptions; (2) awareness; and (3) health services’ use. A multivariate regression model was used to investigate the relationship between these variables. Limited health literacy was found to be prevailing. The lower the respondents’ health literacy skills, the poorer their self-efficacy perceptions and the smaller their awareness of health-related issues. Inadequate health literacy triggered lower patient involvement and greater risks of inappropriate access to care. Inadequate health literacy performs as a barrier to health services’ co-production. Therefore, a special health literacy concern should be attached to health policies aimed at promoting patient involvement.

KEYWORDS:

• Health literacy
• self-efficacy
• awareness
• health care quality
• patient empowerment
• co-production

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rocco Palumbo

Rocco Palumbo is a licensed associate professor of Organization Studies. Currently, he is a research fellow at the Department of Management & Innovation Systems, University of Salerno, Italy, where he teaches Organization Theory.

Carmela Annarumma

Carmela Annarumma is a licensed associate professor of Organization Studies. She is a lecturer at the University of Salerno, Italy, where she teaches Organizational Design for Public Sector organizations.

Rosalba Manna

Rosalba Manna is a Research Fellow in Statistics at the University Parthenope of Naples, Italy. Also, she is senior statistician at the Italian National Institute for Documentation and educational Research (INDIRE).

Marco Musella

Marco Musella is a lecturer at the University of Salerno, Italy, where he teaches Health Literacy. He served as a project manager for many national projects in the field of healthcare management and social innovation.

Paola Adinolfi

Paola Adinolfi is Full Professor of Organization Studies at the Department of Management & Innovation Systems, University of Salerno, Italy. She is the scientific coordinator of the Master Course in Leadership and Management of Healthcare Organization (DAOSan) and the chair of the Interdepartmental Center of Research in Economics, Management and Law of Public Sector Organizations.