The influence of access to care on the health literacy of families in Mexico

Health literacy (HL) is essential to understanding health information and achieving health goals. Unfortunately, limited information is available on how parent HL impact child health outcomes. This is critical to understand in areas of the world where access to healthcare services is limited or unavailable. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the moderating influence of access to care on the relationship between parent HL and child health outcomes in Mexico. Using a geographically stratified convenience sample survey design, we gathered a sample of 373 parent-child dyads throughout Mexico in August of 2021. Using the HLS-Q12, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, healthcare access questions developed by Levy and Janke, a single-item self-report overall health measure, and questions about substance use frequency, we found that parent HL was positively associated with youth mental wellbeing and overall health. Limited healthcare access was associated with increased youth cigarette, marijuana and alcohol use. Our results indicate that efforts to increase parent HL may be effective in improving youth health behaviors and outcomes.