Náfrádi L, Nakamoto K, Csabai M, Papp-Zipernovszky O, Schulz PJ. An empirical test of the
Health Empowerment Model: Does patient empowerment moderate the effect of health literacy on health status?
Patient Educ Couns 2018;
101:511-517. [PMID:
28899712 DOI:
10.1016/j.pec.2017.09.004]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2017] [Revised: 09/04/2017] [Accepted: 09/05/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
The Health Empowerment Model (Schulz & Nakamoto, 2013) advocates that the effects of health literacy and empowerment are intertwined on health outcomes. This study aims to test this assumption in the context of health status as a patient outcome.
METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 302 participants between June and December 2015. The participants' health literacy (using the NVS and S-TOFHLA tests), empowerment and self-reported health status were assessed.
RESULTS
The participants having a high level of patient empowerment and concurrent adequate health literacy (the so-called 'effective self-managers') reported better health status compared to patients who had either lower health literacy and/or lower empowerment scores (P<0.05). Moreover, the meaningfulness (b=0.053, t(297)=2.29, P=0.02) and competence (b=0.07, t(297)=2.47, P=0.01) sub-dimensions of patient empowerment moderated the effect of the NVS on current health status.
CONCLUSION
The study provides evidence for the independence of health literacy and empowerment and partial evidence for their interaction predicting health status.
PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS
Our findings highlight that health literacy and patient empowerment (in particular its competence and meaningfulness sub-facets) are crucial patient-related variables, to be taken into consideration simultaneously, during screening and health promotion campaigns fostering health status in the general population.
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