Health literacy and self-efficacy in Brazilian and Spanish populations with rheumatological diseases and respective differences

• Grant number: 25/00339-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Paula Regina Mendes da Silva Serrão
• Grantee: Gabriel Bernardi dos Santos
• Supervisor: Maria Gine-Garriga
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universitat Ramon Llull, Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/07043-9 - EFFECTS OF A HEALTH SELF-MANAGEMENT STRATEGY PROTOCOL ON BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS OF INDIVIDUALS WITH RHEUMATOLOGICAL DISEASES: A SINGLE-BLINDED RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED CLINICAL TRIAL, BP.DR

Abstract

Rheumatological diseases are conditions that can be degenerative, autoimmune or inflammatory, affecting the osteoarticular system, muscles and other organs, impacting functionality and quality of life. Through health education, the treatment of this population can ensure better outcomes; however, the level of literacy must be considered for this intervention to be effective. Health literacy becomes crucial in the training and understanding of the health conditions of this population, while the level of self-efficacy seems to be an important variable that determines the way in which the individual believes he or she can carry out specific actions and that these can generate good results. The relationship between these variables can directly interfere in the way these individuals are treated, to ensure that proposals for different health education interventions are more effective. The objective of this study is to evaluate the level of health literacy and self-efficacy in patients with rheumatological diseases in Spain and compare these results with the Brazilian population with the same conditions. This is a cross-sectional observational study to be carried out at Universitat Ramon Llull, where health literacy and self-efficacy outcomes will be assessed using the Newest Vital Sign questionnaire and the Perceived General Self-Efficacy Scale. Individuals of both sexes, over 18 years of age and diagnosed with a rheumatological disease will participate in the study. The study will ensure data confidentiality and will follow ethical principles with the submission of the project to the institution's ethics committee. For data analysis, the statistical distribution of the data, homoscedasticity and sphericity will be initially verified using the Shapiro-Wilk, Levene and Mauchly tests, respectively. Simple linear regression analysis will be performed to investigate the influence of health literacy (independent variable) and self-efficacy (dependent variavle). Furthermore, the comparison between volunteers from both countries will be performed using the Chi-square test for categorical variables and the Mann Whitney test for quantitative variables. A significance level of 5% (p ¿ 0.05) will be adopted for all analyses.