Changes in health literacy following participation in a multidisciplinary primary care intervention for people with chronic pain: a longitudinal cohort study.
Kine Gjesdal, Svetlana Skurtveit, Ane Djuv et al.
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In 30 seconds
This longitudinal cohort study examined changes in health literacy among 43 people with chronic non-cancer pain who completed a personalized, multidisciplinary primary care pain-management intervention. Participants completed the Norwegian Health Literacy Questionnaire at baseline, midpoint, and post-intervention; changes were assessed with paired-sample t-tests. Five questionnaire domains improved significantly from baseline to midpoint, and eight improved from baseline to post-intervention. “Navigating the healthcare system” improved significantly across every time-point comparison, while having sufficient information to manage health showed the largest increase among the first five domains.
Key findings
- Five Health Literacy Questionnaire domains improved significantly from baseline to midpoint.
- Eight domains improved significantly from baseline to post-intervention.
- “Navigating the healthcare system” improved significantly across all time-point comparisons.
- Having sufficient information to manage health showed the largest increase among Domains 1–5.
Why it matters
Health literacy can affect how people with chronic pain understand and manage their health. The observed improvements across several questionnaire domains suggest that a tailored, multidisciplinary primary care intervention may support skills relevant to self-management and navigating care. These outcomes provide a rationale for further evaluation of such approaches, while not establishing that the intervention caused the changes.
What to keep in mind
The study was a longitudinal cohort without a comparison group, so changes cannot be attributed to the intervention with certainty. Findings are based on 43 participants who completed the intervention.