Pain, health literacy, and related factors in patients with migraine

Abstract

Aim: Migraine affects activities of daily living by decreasing individuals’ productivity and therefore imposes an economic burden on societies. In our study, considering health literacy’s (HL) close relationship with self-management, hospitalization rates, and health care costs, we aimed to determine the HL of patients with migraine and the relationship between demographic, clinical, and social factors affecting it.

Materials and Methods: The sample included 211 patients at least 18 years old who applied to the neurology outpatient clinic between July and December 2023 and had been diagnosed with migraine for at least 6 months. Data were collected using a sociodemographic information form regarding clinical features, the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and the Health Literacy Scale (HLS-14) with established validity and reliability.

Results: On average, patients were 34.24 years old (SD = 12.23) and scored 47.54 points (SD = 12.60) on the HLS-14 and 7.53 points (SD = 1.88) on the VAS. Statistically significant (p ≤ .05) differences emerged between the patients in terms of age, marital status, level of education, income, disease duration, and HLS-14 scores, along with a negative correlation between VAS and HLS-14 scores (r = −.140, p = .042).

Conclusion: For individuals to participate more actively in making decisions about their health and benefit from better-quality health services, their HL has to be increased. Health care professionals should therefore identify patient groups with historically low HL and provide especially accessible information to such patients.