Sociodemographic and health-related factors associated with low health literacy among Indigenous populations: a systematic review.

Abstract

Indigenous people represent 6% of the world's population and, over time, this population has faced different negative consequences, including those related to health. Health literacy is a variable that can help reduce the health-related harm faced by Indigenous people, since low health literacy has been considered a public health problem. The aim was to review the literature on sociodemographic and health-related factors associated with low health literacy among Indigenous people. To do this, we conducted a systematic review following the recommendations of the PRISMA Statement and approved by PROSPERO (CRD42024591888). A total of seven articles make up the results of this review. The findings show that the low health literacy of Indigenous people is associated with sociodemographic characteristics (e.g. older age, male gender, lower income and educational level) and health-related aspects such as having more than one chronic condition, low perception of COVID-19 risk, low chance of cancer screening, poorer glycemic control, eating behavior, self-monitoring of blood glucose and knowledge about diabetes and difficulty in understanding health information (e.g. medication labels). Although the number of articles selected for this review was small, it should be noted that they all presented a low risk of bias. Sociodemographic and health factors are associated with low health literacy among the Indigenous population. The findings demonstrate the importance of planning public policies to promote health and especially health literacy among this neglected population.