Objectives
To explore the relationship between patient’s health literacy and perceived shared decision‐making (SDM) among Chinese cancer patients.
Methods
A cross‐sectional study was conducted involving a convenience sample of 458 cancer patients from four public hospitals in Guangzhou, China. Patients’ self‐reported data were collected using the Health Literacy Management Scale (HeLMS) and the nine‐item Shared Decision‐Making Questionnaire (SDM‐Q‐9). Hierarchical multiple regressions, controlling for patient–doctor relationship, social support, sociodemographic and clinical variables were conducted to explore the effect of health literacy on perceived SDM.
Results
Health literacy itself accounted for 68.0% of the variance in perceived SDM. Higher scores in domains “information acquisition ability,” and “communication interaction ability” of HeLMS were significantly associated with a higher level of perceived SDM after controlling the covariates (R2 = 75.7%).
Conclusions
Health literacy, especially the information acquisition ability and communication interaction ability, played a prominent role for Chinese cancer patients to be involved in treatment decision making.