Estratégias de informação: A perspetiva da pessoa com doença pulmonar obstrutiva crónica

Abstract

Health literacy is essential for promoting the quality of health care because it facilitates communication between health professionals and users. The low level of health literacy is prevalent in people with COPD. This influences the ability to understand the information on non-adherence to the therapeutic regimen, late awareness of the prognosis, the increase in hospital readmissions and the dependence on health care. For a safe, effective and appropriate transmission of information, we intend to analyse how health literacy levels affect information needs and access to it, given the needs and preferences of the person with COPD. To identify these, we conducted semi-structured interviews and interpretative and semantic analysis of the content. Two dimensions were defined, knowledge and information. In the information dimension, we identified 3 categories: transmission, level of understanding and strategy. In this last category, we outline the subcategories: hearing, reading, digital technology, proximity and demonstration. In the results found, it was the strategy of the association of oral transmission with demonstration, repetition and return, complemented with written information, with simple, clear sentences and with images or photographs, which best contributes to the knowledge and understanding of the information.