Résumé :
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[BDSP. Notice produite par INIST-CNRS bPR0xOC5. Diffusion soumise à autorisation]. Objectives : To measure the prevalence of limited functional health literacy in the UK, and examine associations with health behaviours and self-rated health. Design : Psychometric testing using a British version of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) in a population sample of adults. Setting : UK-wide interview survey (excluding Northern Ireland and the Scottish Isles). Participants : 759 adults (439 women, 320 men) aged 18-90 years (mean age=47.6 years) selected using random location sampling. Main outcome measures : Functional health literacy, self-rated health, fruit and vegetable consumption, physical exercise and smoking. Results : We found that 11.4% of participants had either marginal or inadequate health literacy. Multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated that the risk of having limitations in health literacy increased with age (adjusted odds ratio 1.04 ; 95% confidence interval 1.02 to 1.06), being male (odds ratio=2.04 ; 95% confidence interval 1.16 to 3.55), low educational attainment (odds ratio=7.46 ; 95% confidence interval 3.35 to 16.58) and low income (odds ratio=5.94 ; 95% confidence interval 1.87 to 18.89). In a second multivariable logistic regression analysis, every point higher on the health literacy scale increased the likelihood of eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day (odds ratio=1.02 ; 95% confidence interval 1.003 to 1.03), being a non-smoker (odds ratio=1.02 ; 95% confidence interval 1.0003 to 1.03) and having good self-rated health (odds ratio=1.02 ; 95% confidence interval 1.01 to 1.04), independently of age, education, gender, ethnicity and income. Conclusions : The results encourage efforts to monitor health literacy in the British population and examine associations with engagement with preventative health behaviours.
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