抄録
This study generated data on the levels of health literacy of doctors and older patients (60+ years old) concerning the functional decline and frailty related to aging in Romania and Latvia. The study tackles the lack of data on the topic and provides insight from two EU member states that struggle with a fall in fertility coupled with a high percentage of outward migration predominantly in the young age working population. 300 doctors responded to the questionnaire. Another 301 responses were received from 60+ older patients living in Romania and Latvia. The study adapted the conceptual HLS-EU general model that defines the health literacy as basically referring to the following personal competencies: access, understand, appraise, and apply specific information. The self-declared awareness concerning the functional decline and frailty was high for both patients and doctors (over 70%). However, the overall level of health literacy on both items were determined by a degree of access, understanding, appraisal, and the application of the knowledge about the functional decline and frailty. These health literacy components are much lower in patients, with over 20% of respondents finding it difficult to access and understand the relevant information. In the case of doctors, there appears a discrepancy between the claim of a problem with health literacy and the actual responses sometimes pointing not to having a full knowledge of the issue.
