The effect of health literacy on patient's perceived shared decision-making among Chinese cancer patients

Objectives: To explore the relationship between patient's health literacy and perceived shared decision-making (SDM) among Chinese cancer patients.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving a convenience sample of 458 cancer patients from four public hospitals in Guangzhou, China. Patients' self-reported data were collected using the Health Literacy Management Scale (HeLMS) and the nine-item Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire (SDM-Q-9). Hierarchical multiple regressions, controlling for patient-doctor relationship, social support, sociodemographic and clinical variables were conducted to explore the effect of health literacy on perceived SDM.

Results: Health literacy itself accounted for 68.0% of the variance in perceived SDM. Higher scores in domains "information acquisition ability," and "communication interaction ability" of HeLMS were significantly associated with a higher level of perceived SDM after controlling the covariates (R² = 75.7%).

Conclusions: Health literacy, especially the information acquisition ability and communication interaction ability, played a prominent role for Chinese cancer patients to be involved in treatment decision making.