Engaging consumers living in remote areas of Western Australia in the self-management of back pain: a prospective cohort study

Table 6 The Health Literacy Measurement Scale (HeLMS) was used to measure consumers’ health literacy

Domain (number/title)	Mean (SD)	Min-max	Range (%) 1-4^¥	Range (%) 5^§
1. Patient attitudes towards their health	4.5 (0.6)	3.0 - 5.0	6.0 - 49.0	51.0 - 94.0
2. Understanding health information	4.4 (0.6)	2.3 - 5.0	22.0 - 61.0	39.0 - 78.0
3. Social support	4.5 (0.6)	2.8 - 5.0	22.0 - 51.0	49.0 - 78.0
4. Socioeconomic factors: accessing healthcare services	4.7 (0.5)	2.7 - 5.0	7.8 - 19.6	80.4 - 92.2
5. Accessing general practitioner (GP) healthcare services	4.5 (0.5)	2.7 - 5.0	15.7 - 34.0	66.0 - 84.3
6. Communicating with health professionals	4.2 (0.8)	1.3 - 5.0	24.0 - 70.6	29.4 - 76.0
7. Being proactive	4.4 (0.6)	3.0 - 5.0	24.0 - 58.8	41.2 - 76.0
8. Using health information	4.5 (0.7)	1.75 - 5.0	8.2 - 44.0	56.0 - 91.8

Consumers’ (N = 50) ability to seek, understand and use health information is shown. Mean score (SD) and range data for each of the eight domains are presented. The possible score for each item within a domain ranged from 1: unable to do to 5: able to do without any difficulty
^¥Proportion of consumers who scored 1 to 4 indicating any level of difficulty difficulty with domain items; ^§Proportion of consumers who scored 5, indicating no difficulty with domain items.

ISSN: 1471-2474