A Preliminary Study of Health Literacy in an Ethnically Diverse University Sample

Mediterranean diet adherence and nutritional literacy: an observational cross-sectional study of the reality of university students in a COVID-19 pandemic context

Aim

To evaluate the adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) and the level of nutritional literacy (NL) among university students from different academic fields of study, within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

A total of 1114 first-year undergraduate students at the University of Lisbon, Portugal, were included in this study. A self-administered online questionnaire was applied that included questions regarding sociodemographic information, the MD measured by the PREDIMED questionnaire (PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea) and NL assessed using the Newest Vital Sign questionnaire.

Results

The average PREDIMED score revealed a low adherence (6.79±2.14 points) to the MD. Notably, students in the Social Sciences and Humanities academic fields showed the highest level of adherence (U=21 071; p<0.05). Within the Health field, there was a greater prevalence of dietary behaviours aligned with the MD, contributing to higher overall adherence scores. Furthermore, 84.1% of the participants demonstrated adequate NL. Interestingly, students in the Exact Sciences and Engineering field demonstrated the highest levels of NL (5.07±1.19), particularly in questions involving mathematical reasoning.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that university students in Lisbon do not follow a MD and are far from the recommendations of this dietary pattern. While most participants showed adequate NL, it is essential to highlight the link between knowledge and application to daily practice. Despite positive literacy levels, there remains a deficit in translating this knowledge into correct dietary practices.

Anatomy education beyond the Covid-19 pandemic: A changing pedagogy

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has induced multifaceted changes in anatomical education. There has been a significant increase in the employment of digital technologies coupled with the upskilling of educators' capacity and altered attitudes toward the digitalization process. While challenges remain, learners have demonstrated capabilities to adapt to digital delivery, engagement and assessment. With alternative and innovative teaching and learning strategies having been trialed and implemented for almost two years, the key question now is what the pedagogy will be for anatomy education beyond the pandemic. Here we discuss some of the changes in anatomy education that have taken place as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and importantly present some outlooks for evidence-based anatomy pedagogy as the world enters the post-pandemic phase and beyond. The authors conclude that the anatomy discipline is ready to further modernize and has the opportunity to use digital technologies to evolve and enhance anatomy education to ensure students are provided with the learning experience which will prepare them best for the future.

Definitions and measurement of health literacy in health and medicine research: a systematic review

OBJECTIVES

The way health literacy is understood (conceptualised) should be closely linked to how it is measured (operationalised). This study aimed to gain insights into how health literacy is defined and measured in current health literacy research and to examine the relationship between health literacy definitions and instruments.

DESIGN

Systematic review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement.

DATA SOURCES

The MEDLINE, PsycINFO, ERIC and CINAHL databases were searched for articles published during two randomly selected months (March and October) in 2019.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

We included articles with a quantitative design that measured health literacy, were peer-reviewed and original, were published in the English language and included a study population older than 16 years.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS

Six researchers screened the articles for eligibility and extracted the data independently. All health literacy definitions and instruments were considered in relation to category 1 (describing basic reading and writing skills, disease-specific knowledge and practical skills) and category 2 (social health literacy competence and the ability to interpret and critically assess health information). The categories were inspired by Nutbeam's descriptions of the different health literacy levels.

RESULTS

120 articles were included in the review: 60 within public health and 60 within clinical health. The majority of the articles (n=77) used instruments from category 1. In total, 79 of the studies provided a health literacy definition; of these, 71 were in category 2 and 8 were in category 1. In almost half of the studies (n=38), health literacy was defined in a broad perspective (category 2) but measured with a more narrow focus (category 1).

CONCLUSION

Due to the high degree of inconsistency between health literacy definitions and instruments in current health literacy research, there is a risk of missing important information about health literacy considered be important to the initial understanding of the concept recognised in the studies.

PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER

CRD42020179699.