Health literacy in children with asthma: A systematic review

Abstract Health literacy (HL) is a key factor influencing asthma management outcomes and has primarily been focused on adult patients. The relationship between children’s HL and asthma is unclear, and several research gaps are present in the direct assessment of children’s HL. In this study, a systematic review of the relavant literature was conducted to elucidate the relationship between HL and asthma among children. An electronic database search was performed to obtain studies published between January 2005-August 2016. Inclusion and exclusion criteria and quality appraisal were applied to include only studies that would aid assessment of the relationship between HL and asthma among children. This review identified 13 such studies, most of which have explored the outcomes of the relationship between parental HL and children’s asthma; the review revealed that having parents with low HL is associated with poor asthma control and increased health care utilization. However, children’s HL is yet to be completely understood, and few studies have been conducted on the direct assessment of children’s HL. In addition, our review found that, although only a few instruments have been developed to specifically assess children’s HL, these were unsatisfactory and did not completely include the components of HL, particularly those specific to patients with asthma. The selection of controls for potential variables was different, and the variations in measuring instruments and research settings posed difficulties in the literature review. Additional longitudinal studies or structural equation modeling tests are required to identify the causal effects of HL and relative outcome variables.