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Background: Health literacy, a recently determined construct plays an important role in how individuals are able to manage their health. A useful approach for the assessment of health literacy is to measure the comprehension of available patient education materials (PEMs). Objective: We aimed at assessing the usefulness of PEMS available in Hungarian by testing comprehension of selected PEMs in different groups of users. Methods: Comprehension of patient education materials in the domain of healthcare was tested by selecting PEMs and creating questions based on their text in 3 dimensions of health literacy: understand, process/appraise, apply/use. Twenty questions were created that could be answered without pre-existing knowledge by reading the appropriate text taken from PEMs. Comprehension was examined in four groups: laypersons, non-professional healthcare workers, 1st year healthcare students, and 5th year medical students. Readability indices were calculated for the same texts to which questions were created. Results: Laypersons answered

Background: The public health relevance of health literacy is highlighted by the fact that its higher levels can improve health outcomes and reduce health inequities. In order to design effective interventions for improving health literacy, the relationship between health literacy and other factors such as sociodemographic variables, subjective health and social support must be understood. Objective: Our aim was to test a socioecological model of the determinants of health literacy with a special focus on the effect of residence. Our study investigated geographical differences regarding the levels of health literacy and its determinants as this was not investigated before in European nationwide surveys. Methods: Data was collected by a polling company in a sample (n = 1,200) of the Hungarian adult population nationally representative by age, gender, and permanent residence in 2019 January. The questionnaire included items on sociodemographic data, subjective well-being, social support, and two health literacy scales. A recursive path model was used to outline the mediating effect of social support between sociodemographic variables and health literacy where both direct and indirect effects of the explanatory variables and multiple relationships among the variables were analyzed simultaneously. Multiple-group analysis was applied to the three pre-set categories of permanent residence (capital city, urban and rural). Results: There was no statistically significant difference by residence regarding levels of health literacy. Social support and educational attainment were the most important determinants of health literacy after adjusting for the effect of other sociodemographic variables. However, the magnitude of effect of social support and educational attainment is different between types of settlements, the strongest being in rural areas. Conclusion: Social support seems to mediate the effect of socioeconomic position on health literacy which could be taken into account when designing interventions to improve health literacy, especially in rural areas. Further studies would be needed especially in rural communities to see whether improvement of social support could be utilized in projects to increase the level of health literacy.

The biopsychosocial model of health in a limited life course perspective was tested among students in higher education using data from a nationwide cross-sectional survey of students on track to become teachers in Hungary. Health determinants were grouped into categories of biological, psychological, and social determinants and arranged in a temporal manner from childhood to the present. The model was tested by canonical correlation analysis followed by multivariate analysis of covariance. One composite outcome of health and six determinant groups were examined out of a total of 24 variables in both genders. Separate sets of health determinants were identified for men and women. The health of men was determined by fewer variables that were more proximal in time, more centred around physical activity, and less influenced by social relations. As opposed to that of men, women’s health was influenced by age, determinants were grouped around the ingestion of various substances and social support. In contrast to men, the health of women seemed to be more obviously multifactorial. The study supports the usefulness of the biopsychosocial model of health in research. The best fit models provided evidence for the importance of gender awareness when designing public health interventions aimed at students.

Az elmúlt három évtizedben folyamatosan nőtt a nemzetközi érdeklődés a populációk mentális egészsége iránt, amit a témakörben nagy számban végzett tudományos kutatások és nemzetközi szakmai dokumentumok bizonyítanak. A téma iránti érdeklődéshez és elkötelezettséghez képest azonban a szakirodalomban igen alacsony a populációs adatokat szolgáltató, pontosan dokumentált, jól tervezett, és nemzetközi összehasonlításra is alkalmas vizsgálatok száma. Ez különösen igaz a hazai népesség mentális egészségével kapcsolatos kutatásokra, ami jelentős akadálya annak, hogy a mentális problémákkal küzdő hazai népesség különféle csoportjait célzottan segíteni képes, bizonyítékokon alapuló beavatkozásokat kínáló, több mint egy évtizede tervezett lelki egészség-stratégia elfogadásra kerüljön. E helyzet megoldásához kíván hozzájárulni a közlemény azáltal, hogy áttekintést ad a mentális állapot populációs mérésének konceptuális kérdéseiről, beleértve a mentális egészség átfogó témaköreit; valamint számba veszi a mentális zavarok, a generikus mentális állapot, és a mentális egészség, illetve a szubjektív jóllét vizsgálatára alkalmas, populációs vizsgálatokban leggyakrabban használt mérőeszközöket. A mentális egészség kérdéskörének jelentőségét és a magyar népesség mentális problémáira fókuszálva szükséges, a rendelkezésre álló széleskörű nemzetközi tapasztalatokat figyelembe véve pedig lehetséges a hazai népesség mentális állapotát az eddiginél átfogóbb, rendszeres, és nemzetközi összehasonlításra alkalmas eredményeket nyújtó módon vizsgálni, amely megalapozza a lelki egészség javítását hatékonyan szolgáló, bizonyítékokra alapozott országos stratégia megtervezését és eredményeinek nyomon követését.

Mental health problems are common among students in higher education all over the world, so identifying those who are at higher risk would allow the targeted provision of help. Our goal was to develop an assessment tool to identify students at risk for vulnerable mental health status. This tool was created from the 12-item General Health Questionnaire and Antonovsky&rsquo, s abbreviated sense of coherence scale and was tested to distinguish between those with high or low mental resilience. Predictive ability was characterized by likelihood ratios taking the Beck Depression Inventory and perceived health as references. One-quarter (95% CI 21.1% to 29.7%) of the students had been in vulnerable mental health characterized by low sense of coherence and high distress, whereas 28.4% (95% CI 24.2% to 33.1%) seemed resilient, having high sense of coherence and low distress. The high negative predictive value of the assessment tool reliably identified resilient students in comparison with both the Beck Depression Inventory (98.6%) and perceived health status (83.9%). Use of the assessment tool is recommended for students to distinguish between those at decreased and increased risk in terms of mental health. Mental health services should be offered to students at higher risk.

Background: Child maltreatment has been firmly established as a fundamental risk factor for adult health. However, its quantification poses many questions methodologically, psychologically, and culturally alike. We carried out the first nationally representative survey research in Hungary and in Central–Eastern Europe to assess the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among adults. Methods: Data were collected by an opinion research company using a screening tool of the Adverse Childhood Experiences study. Results: 25% (n = 293) of adults reported any childhood adversity; 5% (n = 59) of them had four or more ACEs. The most prevalent forms of child maltreatment were emotional (5%, n = 59) and physical abuse (5%, n = 59), sexual abuse (1%, n = 12) being the least prevalent. The most frequent dysfunctional household condition was parental divorce or separation (13%, n = 153), followed by household substance abuse (11%, n = 129). Conclusions: Nationally representative surveys on ACEs found a range of overall prevalence of various forms of child maltreatment between 14.1 and 35.2% into which our results fall. Nevertheless, our survey most likely underestimates the prevalence of child maltreatment in Hungary, reflecting the impact of a host of factors influencing awareness. Survey research methods are appropriate to obtain nationally representative data on child maltreatment that not only contribute to designing interventions but can also be used to monitor the effectiveness of interventions to improve child and adult health in the long run.

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