Changes in health literacy assessment of Vidzeme statistical region in Latvia

Abstract

The ability to find, understand, evaluate and use information about an individual’s health during the Covid-19 pandemic has become crucial. Therefore, health literacy (HL) skills development in Latvia, also in other OECD countries, is a priority area. Insufficient HL information base in Latvia is a fundamental basis for the research goal: to determine factors influencing HL and their changes among the population of Vidzeme statistical region (LV008) in Latvia. The study compares the authors’ 2020 study based on the European Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q47). The study includes survey of respondents (n = 383) using pen-and-paper interviewing (PAPI) and telephone interview approach. Various methods and tests were used: Principal axis factor analysis (PFA) with varimax rotation, Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Compare means Independent-sample T-test, Anova, Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (KMO), Bartlett’s test and Chi-squared test, Cronbach’s and Spearman-Brown methods, correlations (Pearson and Spearman’s) and Multiple linear regression (MLR) with Assumption Testing analysis, and Cronbach’s test. The study identified four factors influencing health literacy: access, understanding, evaluation, and use. Compared to the study conducted by the authors in 2020, which determined that education has a positive impact on factor – access, the HL has increased more strongly in the age groups 18-19, 20-29 and 30-39. However, among women the HL level has decreased compared to the previous study by authors and HLS-EU, the proportion of people with sufficient and excellent HL in the European Union has increased overall by 13.5%, while the proportion of people with limited HL decreased by 24.4%.