News | Wednesday, 22nd February 2023

Health literacy under Covid-19 in Viñani, Peru

Knowing levels of health literacy is crucial, since it has been shown to predict the health and well-being of the population in a highly significant way. A research project began on 1st June 2021, which aims to study health literacy in Viñani - a vulnerable community in Tacna in southern Peru.

Two children leant over writing something together.
An image used to promote the ALSAVI research project.

Health literacy refers to ‘the personal characteristics and social resources needed for individuals and communities to access, understand, appraise and use information and services to make decisions about health’ (WHO, 2015). It has become important over recent years due to its use in the design of national, regional, and local health policies.

Knowing levels of health literacy is crucial, since it has been shown to predict the health and well-being of the population in a highly significant way. For instance, associations between health literacy and diabetes knowledge and self-care activities have been widely reported. In the area of mental health, it has been proven that to have a good grasp of mental health literacy and be able to recognise the signs of mental health stages can help to understand the symptoms, and better manage resources available to prevent decline in mental health.

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, knowing the levels of health literacy in the population becomes even more important, both to counteract the negative effects of misinformation circulated about health, and to plan for efficient and sustainable post-pandemic recovery.

In recent decades, health literacy has been studied carefully both on a global scale and in Latin America and several questionnaires have been designed and applied that measure distinct aspects of health literacy levels in general and in relation to Covid-19. However, although this diversity of available instruments is commendable, in Peru there are no complete studies that measure levels of health literacy in the population.

A research project– Health Literacy under Covid-19 in Viñani– therefore began on 1st June 2021, which aims to study health literacy in Viñani (Alfabetizacion en Salud en Viñani, also known as ALSAVI) - a vulnerable community in Tacna in southern Peru. It is a US $100,000 project funded by a Peruvian University: Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohman I Tacna, in southern Peru, via the Canon Minero aid research program. The research team is aiming to measure levels of health literacy in general, and also in relation to Covid-19 more specifically.

The project is being conducted by:

The research team will be collaborating with those interested in health problems in the region, including leaders of the Viñani community, local health authorities, and the university community, among others. Given the importance of health literacy in its role in preventing and planning educational health plans, it is expected that the project will produce a final technical report for use in practice to improve health literacy within the community of Viñani, as well as sharing project findings at national and international conferences and through two articles expected to be published in scientific journals on public health research. It is hoped that the method created for measuring health literacy during the project will also be used in other regions of Peru, in future stages of the research.

During the months of April and May 2024 an initial survey to measure the levels of health literacy will be conducted amongst the population of 1,500 families. The Peruvian team will disseminate a set of questionnaires on health literacy to the adult residents of randomly selected families until a sample size of 400 is reached. Focus group sessions will follow to ascertain the levels of health literacy and strategies to improve it. The research team hopes to report results by the end of 2024.

The research team is interested in exchanging experiences with similar projects being conducted in the UK. For full details about ManMet involvement in this important project, please contact Prof. Alberto Paucar-Caceres.

You can learn more about the research project as it unfolds here.

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