Health literacy & Chagas disease knowledge: A cross-sectional study in Southern Loja Province, Ecuador.

Objective: Health literacy is associated with many patient outcomes. This study sought to determine the association between a person's level of health literacy and their knowledge about Chagas disease.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with people living in two counties in rural Loja Province, Ecuador who attended a mobile health clinic. The communities in which the study was conducted are at high risk of Chagas disease and have limited access to both health care and educational resources. The Spanish version of Short Assessment for Health Literacy measured health literacy. The Chagas Disease Knowledge questionnaire measured knowledge of Chagas disease. T-tests and correlational analysis were used to assess associations.
Results: Overall 85 people participated in this study. A majority of the respondents were female (64.1%), and a plurality were married (40.7%) and had education less than secondary (40.7%). The average age of the sample was 44.31 ± 18.85. Health literacy levels and Chagas disease knowledge in the communities were low. About half of people had inadequate health literacy. No association between health literacy and Chagas knowledge was found.
Conclusion: Health literacy levels and Chagas disease knowledge were not found to be correlated. Explanations for the lack of association may include common causes of inadequate investment in Chagas disease education as well as neglect of health systems in rural Ecuador. Efforts to improve both health literacy and Chagas disease knowledge in poorer, rural areas of Ecuador are needed.
Innovation: This is the first study to assess relationships between health literacy and knowledge of Chagas disease in an uninfected population. For novel conditions, relationships between health literacy and disease knowledge should be investigated before communication campaigns are adapted.
Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Talia Caridi reports financial support was provided by the Research and Scholarly Advancement Fellowship and the Medical Student Research Seed Funding Grants from the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine Benjamin R Bates reports financial support was provided by The Urban Communication Foundation. Cora G. Farra reports financial support was provided by Ohio University, Provost's Undergraduate Research Fund. Cora G. Farra reports financial support was provided by Ohio University, Barbara Geralds Schoonover Professorship Fund. Athar Memon reports financial support was provided by Ohio University, Barbara Geralds Schoonover Professorship Fund. Mario J. Grijalva reports financial support was provided by Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(© 2024 The Authors.)