The Role of Health Literacy in Health Behavior, Health Service Use, Health Outcomes, and Empowerment in Pediatric Patients with Chronic Disease: A Systematic Review

Lisa Riemann, Johanna Sophie Lubasch, Axel Heep and Lena Ansmann
Additional contact information
Lisa Riemann: Organizational Health Services Research, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Oldenburg, Ammerlaender Heerstr. 114-118, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany
Johanna Sophie Lubasch: Organizational Health Services Research, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Oldenburg, Ammerlaender Heerstr. 114-118, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany
Axel Heep: Department of Paediatrics, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Oldenburg, Rahel-Straus-Str. 10, 26133 Oldenburg, Germany
Lena Ansmann: Organizational Health Services Research, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Oldenburg, Ammerlaender Heerstr. 114-118, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 23, 1-20

Abstract: About 8% of all children and adolescents worldwide are affected by chronic diseases. Managing chronic conditions requires pediatric patients to be health literate. The purpose of this review is to examine the existing evidence on the links between health literacy and its outcomes proposed by the model by Sørensen et al. in chronically ill pediatric patients. Four electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, PsycINFO) were searched to identify pertinent articles published up to November 2021. The search was conducted independently by two researchers and restricted to observational studies. Of 11,137 initial results, 11 articles met eligibility criteria. Overall, 6 studies identified a significant association between health literacy and one of the considered outcomes. Regarding health behavior, none of the studies on adherence found significant associations with health literacy. The results in terms of health service use were inconclusive. Regarding health outcomes, health literacy did not affect most physiological parameters, but it significantly improved health-related quality of life. Overall, evidence remains inconclusive but suggests that health literacy is associated with self-efficacy, health-related quality of life, and health service use in pediatric patients. Further research should be undertaken to strengthen the evidence.

Keywords: health literacy; children; adolescents; review; chronic conditions; health outcomes; health behavior; empowerment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/23/12464/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/23/12464/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:23:p:12464-:d:688785

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().