Association between literacy and self-rated poor health in 33 high- and upper middle-income countries

Sujay Kakarmath, Vanessa Denis, Marta Encinas-Martin, Francesca Borgonovi and S. V. Subramanian ()
Additional contact information
Sujay Kakarmath: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Vanessa Denis: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Marta Encinas-Martin: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
S. V. Subramanian: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

International Journal of Public Health, 2018, vol. 63, issue 2, No 8, 213-222

Abstract: Abstract Objectives To assess the relationship between general literacy proficiency and self-rated poor health by analyzing data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, an international survey conducted from 2011 to 2015 in 33 high- and upper middle-income countries and national sub-regions. Methods Logistic regression was used to model general literacy proficiency as a predictor of self-rated poor health. Results Data from 167,062 adults aged 25–65 years were analyzed. The mean overall prevalence of self-rated poor health was 24%. The odds ratio of self-rated poor health for those in the lowest level of general literacy proficiency compared to those in the highest level was 2.5 (95% CI 2.2–3.0) in the unadjusted model, and 1.9 (95% CI 1.6–2.2) in the adjusted model. This association was robust over time and across countries. General literacy proficiency attenuated 22% of the effect of self-education on self-rated poor health, in addition to a substantial independent effect of its own. Conclusions Our study provides robust and generalizable evidence that general literacy proficiency is independently associated with self-rated poor health. These results offer a potential modifiable target for policy interventions to reduce educational inequities in health.

Keywords: Literacy; Educational attainment; Self-rated poor health; Socioeconomic status; OECD; Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00038-017-1037-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
Working Paper: Association between literacy and self-rated poor health in 33 high-and upper-middle-income countries (2018)
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:spr:ijphth:v:63:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s00038-017-1037-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/00038

DOI: 10.1007/s00038-017-1037-7

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Thomas Kohlmann, Nino Künzli and Andrea Madarasova Geckova

More articles in International Journal of Public Health from Springer, Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().