Changes in health literacy following participation in a multidisciplinary primary care intervention for people with chronic pain: a longitudinal cohort study.

Authors

Kine Gjesdal, Svetlana Skurtveit, Ane Djuv, Aksel Paulsen, Gabriela Rolova, Cille Sevild, Torgeir Gilje Lid

Published in

Scandinavian journal of pain. Volume 26. Issue 1. Jan 01, 2026. Epub Oct 06, 2026.

Abstract

Chronic pain is a global public health issue, severely affecting quality of life, functional capacity, and healthcare resources. Effective management requires adequate health literacy, yet limited health literacy is associated with greater pain burden and poorer outcomes. This underlines the need for interventions that can strengthen patients' health literacy skills. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate longitudinal changes in health literacy following participation in a multidisciplinary primary care pain management intervention.
This longitudinal study reports health literacy outcomes from a multidisciplinary, personalized pain management intervention that was developed in accordance with the Medical Research Council framework. Forty-three participants with chronic non-cancer pain completed the full intervention. Health literacy was measured using the Norwegian version of the Health Literacy Questionnaire (HLQ) at baseline, midpoint, and post-intervention. Changes over time were analyzed using paired-sample t-tests.
Statistically significant improvements were observed in five HLQ domains from baseline to midpoint and in eight domains from baseline to post-intervention. "Having sufficient information to manage my health" showed the largest increase among Domains 1-5, whereas "Navigating the healthcare system" showed the largest increase among Domains 6-9 and improved significantly across all time-point comparisons.
Participants demonstrated improvements in several dimensions of health literacy during participation in the intervention, particularly in domains related to having sufficient information to manage health and active self-management. These findings support further investigation of tailored, multidisciplinary approaches to strengthening health literacy among people with chronic pain.
NCT05828121 Date: 04-25-2023.

PMID:
42836695
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 06 Oct 2026.

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