TITLE:
Health Literacy Profiles of Palliative Care Patients in a University Hospital in Benin and Associated Factors
AUTHORS:
André Otti, Afiavi Julienne Estelle Dossou, Eusébe Coovi Ahossi, Ida Agbété, Harmonie Grâce de Dieu Cica Adomou, Falilath Okélèyè, Daniel Koutchonan, Rodrigue Hadékon, Mamie Misengabu, Lamine Baba-Moussa, K. Anthelme Agbodandé, Charles Sossa Jérôme
KEYWORDS:
Health Literacy, Palliative Care, CNHU-HKM, Benin
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biosciences and Medicines,
Vol.13 No.10,
October
17,
2025
ABSTRACT: Introduction: A low level of Health Literacy (HL), especially in a palliative context, has negative consequences on patients’ health, including erratic medical follow-up and low involvement in therapeutic decision-making. Objective: To analyze the HL profiles of patients followed in Palliative Care at the Hubert Koutoukou Maga National University Hospital Center (CNHU-HKM) in Benin. Methods: A mixed descriptive design with analytical purposes was adopted. Nutbeam’s theory, proposing three dimensions of HL (functional, interactive, critical), served as a frame of reference. The standard HL assessment questionnaire, the FCCHL/HLS-14 (Functional, communicative and critical health literacy/14-item Health Literacy Scale), was used with respondents, selected by non-probability sampling of the accidental type. An average score (SM) of LS was calculated by the sum of the scores assigned to each item, divided by the number of items. An SM ≤ 4 corresponded to a low level of HL. The student and Welch t-tests carried out using the IBM SPSS Statistics statistical analysis software, version 25.0, made it possible to analyze the influence of certain sociodemographic variables on HL (p Results: 25 palliative patients were included in the study (mean age: 55 years), of whom 76% had a low level of HL (total SM ≤ 4). The lowest SM levels were observed at the level of functional HL (1.83 ± 1.5) and critical HL (1.94 ± 1.61). Age, level of education, and language of communication significantly influence the HL of the respondents (p Discussion and Conclusion: Informational vulnerability and the limited ability of respondents to evaluate, filter, or question health information require strategies for linguistic adaptation of communication and therapeutic education materials.