Letramento em saúde de mães adolescentes e jovens no cuidado de crianças menores de um ano

Abstract

Within the scope of Primary Health Care (PHC), it is important to identify the level of Health Literacy (HL) of adolescent and young mothers in order to direct nursing care to guide them to attend the health needs of their children and prevent the occurrence of unfavorable outcomes for child health. The objective was to analyze the level of HL of adolescent and young mothers in the care of children under one year old. This is a quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional research developed in six Primary Health Care Units located in Fortaleza, Ceará, during the period from July to December 2022. The sample consisted of 122 mothers, from of which 41 were adolescents and 81 young mothers, and data collection was carried out in three stages: 1) Interview with the mother using the sociodemographic data form; 2) Verification of the Child Health Handbook to collect maternal and child data; 3) Application of the Brazilian version of the Parental Health Literacy Activities Test (PHLAT) to assess the parental HL of adolescent and young mothers. Data were grouped and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 20.0, through descriptive statistics, considering absolute and relative frequencies, means and standard deviation; and inferential statistics through the linear correlation between the PHLAT score and the quantitative variables, using Spearman's coefficient. The association between the classification generated by the PHLAT in low and high literacy and the sociodemographic and mother-infant variables were analyzed using the χ2 test and Fisher's exact test, and the strength of this association using the Odds Ratio (OR). For the inferential analyses, they were considered statistically significant if p<0.05. Study approved by the Research Ethics Committee. As results, it was obtained: 86 (70.5%) mothers had high LS; there was a significant association between family income and the PHLAT score (p = 0.004); gestational age and child development classification showed statistically significant OR with HL level. Although there was no significant association, it was observed that single mothers who started prenatal care in the 3rd trimester were 3.31 times and 8.34 times more likely to have low HL than married mothers who started prenatal care in the 1st trimester of pregnancy, respectively. It is concluded that the level of HL of adolescent and young mothers was high and was associated with family income, gestational age and classification of child development.