Photo Credit: Lea Rae

The following is a summary of “Exploring Health Literacy among Adults with Hidradenitis Suppurativa,” published in the January 2025 issue of Dermatology by Koerts and Horváth. 

Health literacy plays a crucial role in addressing chronic skin diseases like hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), assigning individuals to understand and effectively manage the situation while making informed health decisions.  

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the prevalence of limited health literacy among individuals with HS and its associated factors, which had not been explored previously.  

They collected data through a population-wide survey within the Lifelines Cohort Study in the Netherlands. The health literacy of individuals with HS was compared to that of non-HS controls, 6 validated questions assessing functional, communicative, and critical health literacy were used to measure health literacy and the associations between characteristics of the HS group and limited health literacy were also examined.   

The results showed that among 56,084 adult respondents, 1,156 had HS. The prevalence of limited functional health literacy was 24.5% in the non-HS group and 26.4% in the HS group. Limited health literacy in the HS group was linked to higher BMI (26.9 vs 25.8) [OR 0.969, 95% CI 0.941-0.998], a lower education level (34.5% vs 19.9%) [OR 0.495, 95% CI 0.350-0.701], lower socioeconomic status (-0.68 vs -0.58) [OR 1.194, 95% CI 1.029-1.386], and more severe disease stage (33.0% vs 25.8%) [OR 1.400, 95% CI 1.005-1.952].  

Investigators concluded the critical role of health literacy in HS management, given its association with higher BMI, more severe disease, and potentially poorer health outcomes. 

Source: karger.com/drm/article/doi/10.1159/000543286/918719/Exploring-Health-Literacy-among-Adults-with