Health Literacy and Self-Efficacy in Parents of Toddlers-A Cross-Sectional Study.

Abstract

Aim: Young children depend on their parents to develop in a positive and healthy way. For parents to promote and maintain good health for their children, parent's level of health literacy and self-efficacy is important. The aim of this study was to explore health literacy in parents of toddlers and investigated the associations between parental health literacy and self-efficacy.

Design: The study utilised a quantitative cross-sectional design.

Method: Parents (N = 76) with children between the ages of 6 weeks and 12 months were recruited from a public health centre in Norway. Multidimensional health literacy was measured using the Health Literacy Questionnaire-Parent version while self-efficacy was measured using the General Self-Efficacy Scale. The health literacy domains are presented by descriptive analysis. The associations among health literacy domains, demographic variables and self-efficacy were analysed using bivariate correlations and non-parametric tests.

Results: Health literacy scores were overall high, and self-efficacy was positively associated with all nine health literacy dimensions. The highest score of health literacy was found for the feel that healthcare providers understand and support my child's situation dimension (median 3.8 with interquartile range 3.3-4.0). The lowest scores of health literacy were found for the appraisal of health information dimension (median 3.2 with interquartile range 3.0-3.8). Self-efficacy had a score of median 3.5 with interquartile range 3.2-3.7.

Conclusion: The parents of toddlers in this study had high parental health literacy and self-efficacy. Self-efficacy was positively associated with all nine health literacy constructs. Future research should include multiple measure points to assess the dynamic variation on both parental health literacy, self-efficacy and demographic variables.

Patient or public contribution: No patient or public contribution.