Conceptual aspects and factors associated with Functional Health Literacy: a literary review

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to review scientific productions concerning the evaluation of functional health literacy, which is associated with quality of life, and methodologically analyze the observational studies about this theme. An integrative review has been produced using scientific articles related to the following themes: functional health literacy and quality of life through searches in the PubMed, Lilacs and "Biblioteca Virtual de Saúde" databases. After applying the inclusion criteria, 538 articles were obtained, then, after applying the exclusion criteria, 11 articles were selected. Nine out of the eleven articles are international and the remaining 2 are national. The review consisted of compiling and constructing a historical timeline of the publications with methodological analysis of observational studies and the elaboration of word clouds. Most of the articles have quantitative analysis, adults and elders as target groups and measurements of the levels of functional health literacy. This study verified the positive associations between functional health literacy, low education, advanced age, the male gender and low income. Most scenarios were healthcare environments. Functional health literacy presented an association with social-demographic variables, such as sex, age and education. Most studies presented in this study had the goal of relating literacy to pathologies and were done in clinical environments such as hospitals and health clinics. All eight observational articles included in the review fit the methodological criteria for the elaboration of this type of study.

摘要 本研究旨在梳理与生活质量相关的功能性健康素养（functional health literacy）评估相关的科研成果，并对该主题下的观察性研究开展方法学分析。本研究通过检索PubMed、Lilacs及Biblioteca Virtual de Saúde数据库，纳入与功能性健康素养和生活质量相关的科学文献，完成本次整合性综述。经纳入标准筛选后，共获取538篇文献；再经排除标准筛选后，最终纳入11篇文献。其中9篇为国际研究，剩余2篇为国内研究。本次综述通过对观察性研究进行方法学分析、绘制词云图，同时梳理并构建相关文献的时间线。纳入文献多采用定量分析方法，以成年人与老年人为研究对象，且围绕功能性健康素养水平展开测评。本研究证实，功能性健康素养与低教育程度、高龄、男性性别及低收入水平存在正向关联。研究场景多为医疗保健环境。功能性健康素养还与社会人口学变量（如性别、年龄与受教育程度）存在关联。本次纳入的多数研究旨在探究健康素养与疾病的关联，且研究场景多为医院、健康诊所等临床环境。本次综述纳入的8篇观察性研究，均符合此类研究的方法学制定标准。