The effect of health literacy on patient's perceived shared decision making among Chinese cancer patients

Objectives To explore the relationship between patient's health literacy and perceived shared decision making (SDM) among Chinese cancer patients. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted involving a convenience sample of 458 cancer patients from four public hospitals in Guangzhou, China. Patients' self-reported data were collected using the Health Literacy Management Scale (HeLMS) and the 9-item Shared Decision Making Questionnaire (SDM-Q-9). Hierarchical multiple regressions, controlling for patient-doctor relationship, social support, sociodemographic and clinical variables, were conducted to explore the effect of health literacy on perceived SDM. Results Health literacy itself accounted for 68.0% of the variance in perceived SDM. Higher scores in domains "information acquisition ability", "communication interaction ability" of HeLMS were significantly associated with a higher level of perceived SDM after controlling the covariates (R2 =75.7%). Conclusions Health literacy, especially the information acquisition ability and communication interaction ability, played a prominent role for Chinese cancer patients to be involved in treatment decision making. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.