ArticleBMC public health2021
Declines in health literacy and health-related quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal study of the Japanese general population.
Article in BMC public health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Every Mind Matters campaign: changes in mental health literacy and its associations with campaign awareness.European journal of public health · 2023Pooled it
- Effects of real-time remote cardiac rehabilitation on exercise capacity and quality of life: a quasi-randomised controlled trial.BMC geriatrics · 2023Trial
- Contribution of Supportive Persons to Health-related Quality of Life among Family Caregivers of Patients with Interstitial Lung Disease: A Cross-sectional Study.Internal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) · 2026Article
- COVID-19-related health literacy, general health literacy, and mental health problems: evidence from a population-based study in Japan.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2026Article
- Changes in health-related quality of life and inequality in China: evidence from a nationwide repeated cross-sectional survey (2021-2023).Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Changes in parental knowledge and concerns regarding pediatric fever from 2017 to 2024: repeated cross-sectional surveys on the association of a smartphone application.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Educational differences in mental health-related quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: the mediating role of pandemic-induced psychosocial stress.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Narratives about distributed health literacy during the COVID-19 pandemic.Health (London, England : 1997) · 2025Article
- The relationship between healthcare access and change in health-related quality-of-life among the general population of five countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Evidence of quality of life for hospitalised patients with COVID-19: a scoping review.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2024Article
- EQ-5D-3L and EQ-5D-5L population norms for Thailand.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Evaluation of Parents' Use of a Child Health Care Information App and Their Health Literacy: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2024Article
- Observational
- Article
- Decomposing income-related inequality in health-related quality of life in mainland China: a national cross-sectional study.BMJ global health · 2023Article
- The impact of health literacy on COVID-19 immunization.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2023Article
- Disparities in the level of COVID-19 health literacy and the associated factors among employees in long-term care facilities in Taiwan.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Health-related quality of life in seven European countries throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from the European COvid Survey (ECOS).Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2023Article
- Effect modification by geographic area on the association between health literacy and self-rated health: a nationwide cross-sectional study in Japan.BMC public health · 2023Article
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Abstract
backgroundDuring the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the importance of health literacy (HL) was addressed by public health researchers. We longitudinally examined the changes in general HL and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) between immediately before the COVID-19 outbreak and 1 year later, and how general HL before the outbreak was related to changes in HRQOL in the Japanese general population.
methodsAmong the Japanese residents aged 20-79 years who participated in our previous study in 2017, 826 were followed-up via self-administered questionnaires in January 2020 and February 2021, for the purposes of this study. The HRQOL was measured using the SF-8, a short version of the SF-36 Health Survey, and general HL was measured using the short form of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HL-SF12) in the 2020 and 2021 surveys.
resultsThe physical and mental dimensions of HRQOL as well as general HL declined significantly from immediately before the COVID-19 outbreak to 1 year later (p = .010, p < .001 and p < .001, respectively). The decline in HRQOL, especially the mental dimension, was more significant among women. A lower economic status was also related to a greater decline in HRQOL (p = .026 for the physical dimension and p = .012 for the mental dimension). Higher general HL before the COVID-19 outbreak was associated with a lesser decline in HRQOL in both the physical and mental dimensions (p = .040 and p < .001, respectively) after controlling for possible confounding variables such as gender and economic status.
conclusionsHealthcare support is crucial for vulnerable populations during and after the pandemic. General HL may be important for attenuating the decline in HRQOL, by enabling effective use of health information and adaptive behaviors toward health threats. Further studies are needed to better understand the association between HL and HRQOL.
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