From means to meaningful: undertaking cluster analysis to develop health literacy profiles of people in Australian prisons

Scott W Gill, Christina Cheng, Julia Bowman, Caron Shaw and Richard H Osborne

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 6, 1-25

Abstract: Prison populations are diverse, experience substantial vulnerabilities and commonly have poor health outcomes. Cluster analysis of Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) data provides an opportunity to account for the prison population’s diversity and generate fit-for-purpose intervention ideas for the prison context. This mixed-methods study aimed to undertake cluster analysis to explore the diverse health literacy profiles of people in the New South Wales (NSW), Australia, prison setting, and to co-design a series of vignettes that represent people in prison. Cluster analysis using Ward’s method was applied to HLQ data (n = 471) to identify health literacy profiles of people in NSW prisons. Semi-structured interviews with people in prison were conducted to collect in-depth personal experiences of prison health services access and use. Interview data were combined with cluster analysis results to co-design vignettes with various stakeholders. A 14-cluster solution was identified as the optimal solution for the sample as a whole, whereas a 9-cluster solution was identified for the sample of people who self-identified as Aboriginal. Qualitative data from 10 semi-structured interviews were combined with the health literacy profiles identified in the cluster analyses. A total of 23 vignettes were co-designed with stakeholders (n = 34) to represent the voices of a typical person with lived experience across each cluster. Cluster analysis has unmasked previously unforeseen variations and enabled us to move from merely reporting means to gaining meaningful insights into the health literacy profiles of people in prisons. Our findings are important because they show that using the mean or proxies alone does not capture population variation, which may inadvertently exclude or disadvantage population subgroups. The co-designed vignettes are expected to stimulate discussions to generate localised, fit-for-purpose health literacy-informed interventions to address health inequities for prison populations in NSW.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0351554

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0351554

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