Health numeracy and its determinants among medical doctors in a tertiary hospital in south-south Nigeria

Abstract

Aim/Background: This study estimated the health numeracy level and identified its determinants among medical doctors in a tertiary hospital in South-south Nigeria.
Materials/Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria using 84 randomly selected medical doctors. Health numeracy level was measured using the validated 20-item Numeracy Understanding in Medicine Instrument (NUMi) scale.The logistics regression analysis was used to identify independent significant association between health numeracy level and predictors adjusting for other covariates. Analysis was done using the IBM SPSS version 21.0 software and statistical significance was set at p<0.005
Results: About 72% of the respondents were males, with median (IQR) age of 31 (29 to 35) years. Only 31% of the respondents were aware of the term ‘health numeracy’ and their main source of information was the mass media. Overall, 42.9% of the respondents had high numeracy score, however, only 33% could communicate relative risk reduction, 55% understood small risk using probability,and 52% could interpretthe p-value. Sex,
marital status and income level, had statistically significant association with numeracy level at the multivariate level. The odds of high numeracy level were 5.7 (95% CI: 1.7 – 18.7) times higher in men than women.
Conclusion: Health numeracy level is not optimal among medical doctors in tertiary hospital in Nigeria. These low levels of numeracy were  observed with respect to probability, statistics and communications of risk. Gender, marital status, and income level seem to have a modifying effect on health numeracy. Health Numeracy And Its Determinants Among Medical Doctors In A Tertiary Hospital In South-South Nigeria

Keywords: Health Numeracy, Medical doctors, Tertiary hospital, Nigeria