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Health literacy in psoriasis care
Author(s) -
Larsen M.H.,
Strumse Y.A.S.,
Borge C.R.,
Osborne R.,
Andersen M.H.,
Wahl A.K.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
british journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.304
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1365-2133
pISSN - 0007-0963
DOI - 10.1111/bjd.17957
Subject(s) - psoriasis , medicine , health literacy , quality of life (healthcare) , population , disease , psychological intervention , literacy , self management , family medicine , health care , gerontology , physical therapy , dermatology , nursing , psychology , environmental health , pedagogy , machine learning , computer science , economics , economic growth
Summary Psoriasis is a long‐lasting (chronic) skin disease, which affects 2% to 3% of the population in Scandinavia as well as the UK. Treatment generally requires a high level of self‐management by patients, such as applying medications at home. Psoriasis can have several different treatment options, comorbidities (other diseases occurring alongside psoriasis) and lifestyle recommendations, which can be hard for patients to process. Health literacy (HL) is the ability to seek, understand and apply health information. Lower HL has been linked with poorer health outcomes (meaning less successful treatment) in several chronic conditions, but has not been studied in psoriasis. This study from Norway aimed to investigate the HL strengths and weaknesses of patients with psoriasis. The study included 825 patients with moderate to severe psoriasis who had participated in ‘climate helio therapy’ (use of natural sunlight) in Gran Canaria from 2011 to 2016. All completed questionnaires and The Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) assessed HL. The study found that higher HL predicted higher quality of life and psoriasis knowledge. Sex, educational attainment, age and disease severity had less influence on health literacy. The study shows that improving HL may be a useful strategy for strengthening psoriasis self‐management. Interventions that aim to reduce disease severity and increase psoriasis knowledge, self‐management and quality of life may positively increase HL.