[Health Literacy in Patients Presenting Severe Mental Disorders]

Objectives The Quebec government's 2015-2020 Ministerial Mental-Health Action Plan aims at developing an optimal autonomy level in society and achieving an adequate use of healthcare services among individuals with severe mental disorders. Individuals presenting with such disorders frequently have other long-term conditions. In order to manage their conditions, these individuals must have access to, understand, and use health-related information. This corresponds to the concept of health literacy (HL). Although some research has been conducted on the HL of individuals with severe mental-health disorders, none has been done in the province of Quebec (Canada) and the measurement questionnaire previously used did not adequately take into account the multiple dimensions of HL. Using a multidimensional questionnaire would thereby be beneficial. Specifically, the objective herein was to describe the HL among individuals with a severe mental disorder residing in the community in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region (Québec, Canada). Methods This quantitative research used a descriptive design. The participants were recruited from the community mental-health program at the Dolbeau-Mistassini CLSC, which is part of the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux (CIUSSS) du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. The participants were selected using a convenience sampling. Three questionnaires were used for data collection: 1) the French version of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ), a self-report questionnaire with 9 scales; 2) the French version of the Disease Burden Morbidity Assessment to get a portrait of the chronic diseases of participants; and 3) a standard sociodemographic questionnaire. The scores for the dimensions of the HLQ have been described with descriptive statistics. The average values of the nine QLS scales for the different participant subgroups were compared with Student's t-tests or ANOVA. Results Based on the overall HLQ results, the dimension Ability to understand health information reflected a lower level of HL. Overall, the averages for the various dimensions for the study population were all slightly lower than those previously described using the same questionnaire but with populations of the elderly or people with chronic conditions. Conclusion The results highlight the need to continue investigating the HL concept for the population segment with severe mental disorders. This study also brings out the need to adapt the health education delivered to this population so as to help such individuals better understand health-related information.