General practitioners' predictions of their own patients' health literacy: a cross-sectional study in Belgium.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To support patients in their disease management, providing information that is adjusted to patients' knowledge and ability to process health information (ie, health literacy) is crucial. To ensure effective health communication, general practitioners (GPs) should be able to identify people with limited health literacy. To this end, (dis)agreement between patients' health literacy and GPs' estimations thereof was examined. Also, characteristics impacting health literacy (dis)agreement were studied.

Design

Cross-sectional survey of general practice patients and GPs undertaken in 2016-17.

Setting

Forty-one general practices in two Dutch-speaking provinces in Belgium.

Participants

Patients (18 years of age and older) visiting general practices. Patients

SUBMITTER: Storms H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6747646 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature