May 12, 2020

Pandemic Related Health Literacy – A Systematic Review of Literature in COVID-19 SARS and MERS Pandemics

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Public Health Policy and Practice

• A literature review of health literacy related to COVID-19, MERS, and SARS, which included 70 articles, found low pandemic health literacy, ranging from 4.3% to 57.9% among medical-related populations, and from 4% to 82.5% among non-medical populations. The items most frequently evaluated were knowledge about symptoms and transmission, concern about infection, and practices related to mask use and hand hygiene. Higher education level, older age, and female gender were associated with higher health literacy.  

Seng and YEAM. (May 11, 2020). Pandemic Related Health Literacy – A Systematic Review of Literature in COVID-19 SARS and MERS Pandemics. Pre-print downloaded May 12 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.07.20094227