Poor health literacy associated with stronger perceived barriers to breast cancer screening and overestimated breast cancer risk.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Low health literacy (HL) is negatively associated with mammography screening uptake. However, evidence of the links between poor HL and low mammography screening participation is scarce.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey among participants of a cancer screening program. We measured HL using a validated Chinese instrument. We assessed breast cancer screening-related beliefs using the Health Belief Model and the accuracy of risk perception. We used multivariable regression models to estimate the relationship between HL and the outcomes.

Results

A total of 821 females were included. 264 (32.2%) had excellent or sufficient, 353 (43.0%) had problematic, and 204 (24.8%) had inadequate health literacy (IHL). Women with IHL were more likel

SUBMITTER: Poon PKM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9850080 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature