Current status of health literacy of childhood cancer survivors—Examination at one facility—

Abstract

Background: Childhood cancer survivors (CCSs) should understand health promotion in relation to the risk of late effects, but few reports are available on their health literacy (HL). Methods: Patients who received treatment for childhood cancer at University of the Tsukuba Hospital from 1976 to 2018 and who were diagnosed more than 5 years ago and aged 16 years or older at the time of the survey were included. The participants completed a self-administered questionnaire received through the post. We investigated the relationships between the participants’ HL and backgrounds and compared the results with those of healthy individuals. Results: Of the 249 individuals who were sent the questionnaires, 54 (21.6%) responded. Although no statistically significant difference was revealed, CCSs had higher HL than the healthy controls. The HL tends to be high in those who were 0–4 years old at the time of diagnosis, vocational school graduates, and students, whereas the HL tends to be low in those who were diagnosed at 15 years of age or older. The difficulty in attaining HL was greater in CCSs than in healthy controls. In CCSs the greater difficulty in attaining HL was observed in determining the need to seek a second opinion and to understand the reliability of the information on health risks obtained from the media. Discussion/Conclusion: Although HL of CCSs may be affected by their life events, parents and others, our results that indicate equal to or better HL in CCSs than in healthy controls suggests that the experiences of childhood cancer do not worsen but can raise health awareness.