ASSESSMENT OF HEALTH LITERACY IN A COHORT OF SYSTEMIC SCLEROSIS (SSC) PATIENTS

Background: SSc is a chronic, complex and very debilitating disease,involving all the aspects of physical, mental and social life. Thus, theneed of a first assessment of the degree of health literacy (HL) isrequired to develop useful tools for SSc patients to simplify their accessto health care services. HL is defined as the ability to acquire, synthesize and understand health information and services required to makedecisions regarding an individual or community’s health.Objectives: to assess the HL in SSc patients.Methods: 25 SSc patients classified ACR/EULAR criteria (limited and diffuse subsets) were enrolled in September-October 2018 with the supportof the local association of patients (ASSMAF). Patients have been evaluated for socio-demographic variables and the HLS-EU-Q16 questionnaire(Italian version).Results: Questions 1 to 7 (on health information) are associated withage, educational qualifications and with the number of children; while 8to 12 (on prevention) are associated with the number of children, butalso with the type of employment and marital status; finally, questions13-16 (on health promotion) are associated with age, educational qualifications and number of children. Moreover, our results show 20% of SScpatients with an inadequate level (0-8) of HL, compared to the 12% ofthe general population; 40% show a problematic level (9-12) of HL lowerthan that found in the general population (55%), while 40% of patientsshow an adequate level (13-16) of HL, higher than the 33% of the general population.Conclusion: Health literacy level is an important parameter to considerand assess in SSc patients to facilitate their access to health care services and their understanding of the disease. Future researches with larger sample size are needed.