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Low health literacy among parents linked to child TV watching, at-risk behaviors
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Low parental health literacy is independently and significantly associated with parent depression, child television watching, and various at-risk family behaviors such as not having a working smoke detector, lack of first-aid knowledge about choking and firearm access, according to data published in Pediatrics.
The researchers also concluded that the use of low-literacy approaches to health-behavior interventions may be needed to address common child morbidities.
“An estimated 80 million adults in the United States have low health literacy, or a limited capacity to ‘obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make important information health decisions,’” Erika R. Cheng, PhD, MPA, of the department of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote. “… Although the relationship of health literacy to adult health is well established, fewer studies have examined the role of health literacy for child health. Nearly 30% of U.S. caregivers are estimated to have below basic or basic health literacy, which has implications for child health.”
To determine the relationship between low parental health literacy and a range of pediatric health risks in primary care patients, the researchers collected data from 17,845 English- and Spanish-speaking parents of children aged 7 years and younger who were presenting for well-child care. The researchers used a 3-item screener to measure health literacy, with secondhand smoke exposure, asthma treatment nonadherence, parent depression, child-rearing practices, injury prevention and parental first-aid knowledge as outcomes.
Screenings were conducted through the Child Health Improvement through Computer Automation system, a pediatric primary care clinical decision support network that operates in five urban community health centers of Eskenazi Health in Indianapolis. They summarized study variables with descriptive statistics and then used a multivariate logistic regression to determine associations low parental health literacy and dependent measures.
According to the researchers, 36.5% of screened parents had low health literacy. After adjusting for child gender, race/ethnicity, insurance coverage, age and parents’ language preference, low parental health literacy was associated with parent depression (adjusted OR = 1.32; 95% CI, 1.18-1.48), not having a functioning smoke detector (aOR = 3.54; 95% CI, 2.74-4.58), firearm access (aOR = 1.68; 95% CI, 1.49-1.89), and a lack of first-aid knowledge regarding choking (aOR = 1.67; 95% CI, 1.44-1.93) and burns (aOR = 1.45; 95% CI, 1.29-1.63). In addition, children of parents with low health literacy were also more likely to watch more than 2 hours of television per day (aOR = 1.27; 95% CI, 1.17-1.36).
“In summary, our findings indicate that there may be significant implications of low parent health literacy for improving the health of child populations,” Cheng and colleagues wrote. “Although more studies are needed to understand the underlying reasons for these associations, our results provide a strong rationale for pediatricians to consider incorporating strategies to identify and address low parent health literacy in the clinical setting concomitantly with efforts to address parent depression, reduce child television viewing and lower the risk for pediatric injury.” – by Jason Laday
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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