Health Literacy, Self-Perceived Health, and Substance Use Behavior among Young People with Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders

Gabriela Rolova, Beata Gavurova and Benjamin Petruzelka
Additional contact information
Gabriela Rolova: Department of Addictology, First Faculty of Medicine and General University Hospital in Prague, Charles University, Apolinářská 4, 128 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic
Beata Gavurova: Center for Applied Economic Research, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Mostní 5139, 760 01 Zlín, Czech Republic
Benjamin Petruzelka: Department of Addictology, First Faculty of Medicine and General University Hospital in Prague, Charles University, Apolinářská 4, 128 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: Licit and illicit substance use is one of the major public health issues with severe negative health consequences for individuals and society. Health literacy is essential for improving one’s health and navigation in the healthcare system. However, the evidence of health literacy in people with substance use disorders is limited. This study aims to examine health literacy and its socio-demographic, health-related, and substance use-related correlates in young people with alcohol (AUD) and substance use disorders (SUD). In this study, cross-sectional data of young people undergoing addiction treatment for AUD ( N = 201, mean age 37.6) and SUD ( N = 165, mean age 31.1) were used. Health literacy was assessed using the HLS-EU-Q47. Simple and multiple linear regression was performed to estimate the correlates of health literacy. In total, 37.8% of participants with AUD and 41.8% of SUD had limited health literacy. In participants with AUD, living condition factors, self-perceived health indicators, and frequency of alcohol use showed a significant effect on health literacy. In participants with SUD, financial factors, self-perceived health indicators, and injection sharing showed a significant effect. Increasing health literacy might contribute to improved health outcomes and decreased high-risk substance use-related behavior in people undergoing addiction treatment.

Keywords: health literacy; HLS-EU-Q; alcohol use disorder; substance use disorders; residential addiction treatment; multiple regression (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: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4337/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4337/ (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:8:p:4337-:d:539253

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 ().