Paediatric anaesthesia & critical care
Tools Measuring Health Literacy in Critically Ill Patients and Their Caregivers: A Scoping Review
Authors' conclusion
Although several health literacy tools exist, they often focus on individual knowledge of specific aspects of ICU care, with less attention to how understanding is produced within the clinical context through interactions among patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers. This may limit their ability to reflect how health literacy functions in critical illness. Assessment of health literacy requires pairing the appropriate tools with interaction-focused approaches to guide communication and support informed decision-making in ICU settings.
Study context
- Population
- Critically ill patients and their caregivers in the neonatal ICU (NICU), PICU, and adult ICUarticles included, describing 84 health literacy tools
- Participants
- 92 patients
- Outcome
- Health literacy tools by domain measured
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- Topic-specific clinical knowledge (e.g., organ donation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation)
- n = 24/84, 29%; NICU: n = 9; PICU: n = 1; ICU: n = 14
- ICU prognosis, diagnosis, and treatment
- n = 23/84, 27%; NICU: 6; PICU: 3; ICU: n = 15
- Neonatal and parenting
- n = 13/84, 15%; all NICU
- General health literacy abilities
- n = 11/84, 13%; NICU: n = 6; PICU: n = 2; ICU: n = 7
- Information needs
- n = 4/84, 5%; NICU: n = 1; PICU: n = 0; ICU: n = 3
- Readiness for discharge
- n = 3/84, 4%; all NICU
- Decision-making
- n = 3/84, 4%; all NICU
- Health-related behaviors
- n = 2/84, 2%; NICU: n = 1; ICU: n = 1
- Research participation
- n = 1/84, 1%; NICU
Original publication
Tools Measuring Health Literacy in Critically Ill Patients and Their Caregivers: A Scoping Review. Crit Care Med. Published 14 October 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →