Introduction: It is a priority to include the health literacy of informal caregivers in public
health policies, with potential benefits for the health of the caregiver and the care provided
to the elderly. This study aimed to evaluate the health literacy of informal caregivers of
elderly people cared for in a university hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Cross-sectional, observational, descriptive, correlational and quantitative
approach with 37 informal caregivers of elderly people treated at the Geriatrics Service
of the Hospital Universitário João de Barros Barreto. The following instruments were
used: sociodemographic and European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire. For data
processing and analysis, we used the statistical programs Epi Info version 7.2.5.0 (Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, United States) and GraphPad Prism version
8. Regarding descriptive statistics, the following were performed: absolute and relative
frequencies for all variables and, in the case of numerical variables, we calculate the
mean, median, standard deviation, minimum and maximum, with their respective 95%
Confidence Intervals. In inferential statistics, the non-parametric chi-square tests of
adherence were applied for univariate categorical comparison and G test for bivariate
categorical comparisons. Considering the numerical comparisons, ANOVA 1 criterion
was used since they met the assumptions of normality (assessed by the Bartlett test). An
alpha statistical significance level of 5% was considered for all analyzes carried out.
Results: Of the 37 informal caregivers, they were women (91.8%) with an average age
of 48 years, married (62.1%), with high school education (43.2%), living in the same
house with the elderly person being cared for (45, 9%) with good health status (54.0%)
self-report that the provision of care to the elderly was not affected (56.7%), they take
care of one person (45.9%), their father/mother (64 .8%). As for the elderly people cared
for, the majority were women (72.9%) with an average age of 78.2 (±13.2) years. The LS
of informal caregivers was 21.7, proving to be inadequate. The domain with the best score
was “Health Promotion” (23.6) and “Disease Prevention” (20.1), the worst. Conclusion:
The results showed that the health literacy of informal caregivers is inadequate,
highlighting the need for educational actions for this population with a view to improving
the care provided to elderly people.
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