Aim: Health literacy is the ability to understand and interpret health information and navigate the health-care system. Low health literacy is associated with poorer health knowledge and disease management, increased chronic illness, underutilisation of preventative health services and increased hospitalisations. The aim of the study is to review the available literature on the relationship between parental health literacy and health outcomes for children with chronic disease in high-income countries (HIC) and low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).
Methods: We systematically searched Medline, EMBASE and Web of Science, and assessed study quality using the Newcastle Ottawa Scale. We reviewed all relevant studies, and identified themes using thematic analysis.
Results: Of 1167 studies assessed, 49 were included in the review. All studies were of adequate quality. Twenty-two were from LMIC and 27 from HIC. Six themes were identified: Parental health literacy, parental education, socio-economic conditions, identity and culture, family factors, and health behaviours. In both HIC and LMIC, lower parental health literacy was associated with poorer child health outcomes. Disease-specific knowledge was found in a number of papers to directly impact parent health behaviour and child health outcomes, and may mitigate the effects of low parental health literacy.
Conclusion: There is a clear link between parental health literacy, health behaviour and health outcomes for children with chronic disease. Disease-specific knowledge as a target for health-care interventions holds promise for application in low-resourced settings with parents (particularly mothers) who have lower health literacy, where disease-specific education may improve child health outcomes, although more research is required to determine how we can best facilitate these programmes.
Keywords: general paediatrics; health literacy; international child health; paediatrics.
© 2022 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (The Royal Australasian College of Physicians).