Differences in health literacy profiles of patients admitted to a public and a private hospital in Melbourne, Australia

Table 2 Relationship between Health Literacy Questionnaire mean domain scores by hospital of attendance, with unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios showing the difference in scale scores adjusted for variables known to be related to health literacy and use of hospital services

	Public Hospital (N = 384) Mean (SD)	Private (N = 3121) Mean (SD)	Unadjusted^c	Adjusted Odds Ratio^{c, d}
Healthcare provider support^a	3.13 (0.57)	3.35 (0.48)	0.40 (0.32, 0.49)	0.57 (0.44, 0.72)
Having sufficient information^a	2.97 (0.52)	3.07 (0.48)	0.59 (0.47, 0.74)	0.78 (0.61, 1.01)
Actively managing health^a	2.93 (0.52)	3.07 (0.49)	0.54 (0.43, 0.67)	0.67 (0.52, 0.86)
Social support for health^a	3.11 (0.55)	3.26 (0.49)	0.53 (0.43, 0.66)	0.66 (0.52, 0.84)
Active appraisal of health information^a	2.82 (0.52)	2.85 (0.53)	0.87 (0.71, 1.07)	1.04 (0.82, 1.33)
Active engagement with healthcare^b	3.82 (0.78)	4.07 (0.58)	0.52 (0.44, 0.61)	0.77 (0.64, 0.93)
Navigating the healthcare system^b	3.63 (0.75)	3.91 (0.57)	0.45 (0.38, 0.54)	0.65 (0.53, 0.79)
Ability to find good health information^b	3.56 (0.80)	3.85 (0.62)	0.51 (0.43, 0.59)	0.77 (0.64, 0.93)
Understanding health information well enough^b	3.85 (0.78)	4.11 (0.58)	0.51 (0.43, 0.60)	0.87 (0.71, 1.05)

^aScale range 0–4, higher score indicates greater ability or more support
^bScale range 0–5, higher score indicates greater ability or more support
^cReference category = private hospital
^dAdjusted Odds Ratio. Adjusted for age (< 65, ≥65), education (did not complete secondary school, completed secondary school or above), language (English, non-English), income (<$30,000, ≥$30,000)
Items in bold indicate significance at the p = 0.05 level

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