Letramento em saúde de pais e/ou cuidadores no controle e manejo da asma em crianças

Abstract

Asthma is a multifactorial disease, with a high prevalence in childhood, which has a significant impact on the life of the child and the family. Health literacy can influence the behavior of parents and/or caregivers regarding the management and control of asthma in children. Thus, this study aimed to: characterize the sociodemographic profile of parents and/or caregivers of children with asthma; Identify the level of health literacy of these parents and/or caregivers; and to verify the association between health literacy of parents and/or caregivers of children with asthma and sociodemographic variables of families. This is a cross-sectional study, with a sample of 150 parents and/or caregivers of children aged between two and 12 years old with a diagnosis of asthma enrolled in the Comprehensive Care Program for Children and Adults with Asthma (PROAICA), assisted in three Primary Health Care Units (UAPS) of the Regional Executive Secretariat V (SER V), in the city of Fortaleza/Ce. Data collection took place at the UAPS based on an interview with parents and/or caregivers using the Health Literacy Scale - 14 (HLS-14) in order to measure health literacy and a sociodemographic form of families. Health literacy levels were classified into low literacy (≤ 45) and high literacy (≥ 46). Data were analyzed using SPSS® (version 23) and R® (version 3.6.3) software. Chi-square statistical tests were used for independence and Fischer's exact test for the association of categorical variables, and the T test for independent samples for comparison of means, establishing a significance level of less than 0.05 and a 95% confidence interval. . The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Ceará. From the analysis of the data, there was a predominance of parents and/or caregivers who were 31 years of age or older, with nine years of study or more, single or divorced, worked outside the home and had a family income of up to one and a half. half minimum wage. Of the 150 study participants, it was found that 134 (89.3%) had low health literacy and 16 (10.7%) had high health literacy. As for the association between the HLS-14 and the sociodemographic variables of the families, a statistically significant association can only be verified with the level of education (p<0.0001). The age group variables; marital status; occupation and family income did not show significance with health literacy. It is concluded that nurses should implement educational strategies that seek to increase health literacy so that parents and/or caregivers feel able to provide adequate care in the control and management of childhood asthma.