Measuring health literacy amongst people with COPD
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring health literacy levels amongst patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); a cross-sectional study
IRAS ID
230251
Contact name
Rachael Summers
Contact email
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 28 days
Research summary
Living well with a long-term condition often involves the individual finding and using information about their health. How able the person is to find, understand and use health information is known as health literacy. Previous research suggests that low health literacy may result in poorer health for the individual and increase the cost to the NHS.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a long-term lung condition which affects quality of breathing. Managing COPD relies heavily on the individual; for example, people with COPD have responsibility for managing their medication and responding quickly to a sudden worsening in symptoms. There is little research into health literacy in people with COPD; a study in Spain identified that there were high levels of health literacy in people with COPD, and that those with lower levels of health literacy struggled more with daily activities and went to hospital more. This study aims to understand the levels of health literacy in people with COPD in the UK.
We will identify people with COPD who attend NHS clinics, rehabilitation classes or local support groups and ask them to take part in our study. We will ask them to complete two questionnaires; one about their personal details (such as age and sex), and one about health literacy. This second questionnaire will measure different areas of health literacy; for example, one area relates to understanding information about health, and another area relates to whether they seek out information about health. This information will allow us to understand both the overall levels of health literacy in this group, as well as helping us identify if there are certain areas of health literacy that are high or low. We will also look to see if any things like age and sex are related to health literacy.
We hope that this study can inform future research to help us make sure that people with COPD are given the best possible opportunity to make informed decisions about their own health.
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/NW/0493
Date of REC Opinion
31 Aug 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion