Are we on the same page? Exploring the health literacy of Samoan mothers and their experiences in the health care management of their unwell children.

Abstract

The aim of this research was to explore the health literacy of Samoan mothers and their experiences in the health care management of their unwell children. The main objectives were: to explore the Samoan mothers’ existing knowledge of health literacy; to investigate the key factors that influenced this health literacy; and lastly to identify the enablers and barriers that Samoan families faced in the management of care for their unwell children. The first step in the research process was to undertake a search of the published literature pertaining to health literacy. Fifty six articles published from the years 2000 – 2016 were used to provide a context for the study and to inform the questions asked of the participants. The literature survey identified the gaps in the knowledge about the health literacy of Samoan mothers in general, and more particularly in relation to child health. Twenty Samoan mothers were interviewed for this study. To be eligible, participants needed to meet all the criteria: to self-identify as a Samoan; to be over the age of 18 years; to live in Auckland; to have had previous, or have current, access to a health care practice, and to have been, or to be currently, a primary caregiver to children. Each of the selected participants then agreed to a face to face interview that was audio recorded and transcribed. Data collection and analysis was guided by a constructivist grounded theory research methodology. Data was inductively analysed and further categorized into main themes that aimed to answer the key objectives. The key themes explored participants’ general understanding of health literacy, their experience in managing the care of an unwell child, and their preferred health care services. The study findings highlighted there was a lack of understanding of the term health literacy and what health literacy fully entails; however, the participants were able to clearly articulate the factors that influenced their health literacy, provide a self-report of their health literacy levels, and importantly, were able to highlight key enablers and barriers in the care management of their child’s health. A key finding in this study was the significance of the health professionals’ role, in particular family doctors, in providing resources and information to participants. Many participants recognized their family doctors as their primary source of information and placed a lot of trust in their diagnosis, treatment, use of medication and management of care for their child’s health. However, the findings also revealed the plethora of negative experiences that these participants faced whilst engaging with family doctors and provided detailed accounts as to how this impacted on their ability to manage the care of their child. Further recommendations have been identified to improve both systemic, service and health professional skills to meet the needs of Samoan mothers and improve their health literacy, not only for their personal health and that of others around them, but also importantly for of their own children’s health.