MUSK Health's Solveig Veshovda and co-authors have recently published a scoping review of health literacy and musculoskeletal disorders in adolescents.
Short introduction to the study:
In this study, we conducted å scoping review targeting health literacy (HL) related to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in adolescents. The study is designed in accordance with Arksey and O’Malleys framework and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. The search strategy was performed in the following databases in November 2021 (initial search) and December 2022 (updated search); Medline, EMBASE, PsychINFO, Cochrane, CINAHL, ERIC, Web of Science and Google Scholar. Eligible studies involving MSDs and HL or either of the HL dimensions related to finding, understanding, appraising or applying health information in adolescents were considered. A total of 16 841 records were identified and 33 were eligible for inclusion. The results showed that ten reports presented HL with a definition or description in the theoretical background. The remaining 23 studies involved finding, understanding, appraising or applying health information, without using the term ‘health literacy’. Most of the studies addressed how adolescents understand (n=32), and apply (n=23) health information, while few studies focused on how they find (n=11) and appraise (n=7) musculoskeletal health information. Our findings suggest that there is important work to be done to align conceptual understandings with the measurement of HL in adolescents and that further research should be carried out to explore how HL is distributed among adolescents with MSDs and how adolescents living with MSDs report their HL.
You can read more about the scoping review here: Health literacy and musculoskeletal disorders in adolescents: a scoping review | BMJ Open
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