Health literacy knowledge and experiences of nursing students at a South African university

Abstract

A worldwide high prevalence of low health literacy has been reported, and despite the emergence of health literacy as a better determinant of health than socio-economic status, it is alarming that little attention is being accorded to training health workers on health literacy practices. This study thus sought to describe the health literacy knowledge and experiences of nursing students gained duringtraining in order to establish a basis that will inform future health literacy training.A descriptive cross-sectional survey was carried out using a questionnaire to establish the health literacy knowledge and experienceof 82nursing students.Data wereanalysed using descriptive as well as inferential statistics. The students exhibited unsatisfactory health literacy knowledge as measured by the questionnaire, with an average score of 73per cent, with knowledge gaps in some areas–for example with regard to the effectof low health literacy on patient health outcomes and identification of patients with low health literacy.