Exploring the Health Literacy Behavior Patterns of Male Patients Using an Interpretable Method.

Background: Improving overall and individual health literacy is a major focus of national initiatives in China and similar initiatives globally. However, few studies have examined the identification and improvement of individual health literacy levels, especially among patients.

Purpose: To develop an interpretable method with decision rules to assess the health literacy levels of male patients and identify key factors influencing health literacy levels.

Methods: Using a convenience sampling method, we conducted on-site surveys with 212 male patients of a hospital in China from July 2020 to September 2020. The questionnaire was developed by the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China. A total of 206 of the completed surveys were ultimately included for analyses in this study. The rough set theory was used to identify conditional attributes (ie, key factors) and decision attributes (ie, levels of health literacy) and to establish decision rules between them. These rules specifically describe how different combinations of conditional attributes can affect health literacy levels among men.

Results: Basic knowledge, concepts, and health skills are important in identifying whether male patients have health literacy. Health skills, scientific health concepts, healthy lifestyles and behaviors, infectious disease prevention and control literacy, basic medical literacy, and health information literacy can be identified as cognitive behaviors with varying degrees of health literacy among patients.

Conclusion: This model can effectively identify the key factors and decision rules for male patients' health literacy. Simultaneously, it can be applied to clinical nursing practice, making it easier for hospitals to guide male patients to improve their health literacy.