Identifying At-Risk Subpopulations of Canadians with Limited Health Literacy

Table 1

Descriptive summary statistics, 95% confidence interval, and bivariate tests by the IALSS respondents with and without limited health literacy.

Variables	All respondents; (𝑛=23,038)
	Total	Limited HL	Not limited HL	Difference; (95% CL: LL, UL,)	𝑋^2; (DF, 𝑃 value)
Limited HL^d	29.3%	—	—
College education^c	40.0%	18.6%	48.5%	30.0; (28.6, 31.2)	1780.2; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
Adult education^c	45.1%	20.7%	55.1%	34.3; (33.0, 35.7)	2182.8; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
Read newspapers^c	75.2%	65.9%	79.0%	13.1; (11.9, 14.3)	421.6; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
Read books^d	41.7%	25.2%	48.4%	23.3; (21.9, 24.7)	1020.5; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
Watch TV				NA	908.9; (3, 𝑃<.0001)
1 hour or less per day	25.0%	18.8%	27.6%	—	—
Over 1 hour to 2 hours per day	33.0%	27.9%	35.1%	—	—
More than 2 hours but less than 5	33.5%	37.1%	32.1%	—	—
5 or more hours per day	8.5%	16.3%	5.3%	—	—
English was the first language learned^c	50.2%	40.5%	54.1%	13.6; (12.2, 15.1)	341.6; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
English is the primary language^c	62.0%	55.2%	64.7%	9.6; (8.1, 11.0)	163.9; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
Age group				NA	2256.8; (5, 𝑃<.001)
16–25	16.8%	10.9%	19.2%	—	—
26–35	15.5%	10.3%	17.7%	—	—
36–45	21.3%	16.5%	23.3%	—	—
46–55	20.2%	17.4%	21.3%	—	—
56–65	13.3%	17.1%	11.7%	—	—
66 and older	12.9%	27.9%	6.7%	—	—
Self-rated health				NA	1322.6; (4, 𝑃<.0001)
Poor	3.9%	7.8%	2.3%	—	—
Fair	11.5%	19.2%	8.4%	—	—
Good	29.0%	33.7%	27.1%	—	—
Very good	33.3%	25.0%	36.7%	—	—
Excellent	22.2%	14.3%	25.4%	—	—
Emotional problem^c	8.9%	12.8%	7.3%	−5.6; (−6.4, −4.7)	175.1; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
Life satisfaction				NA	396.9; (4, 𝑃<.0001)
Extremely unsatisfied	1.8%	2.7%	1.4%	—	—
Unsatisfied	6.5%	9.9%	5.1%	—	—
Neither	9.6%	9.8%	9.5%	—	—
Satisfied	61.3%	62.7%	60.7%	—	—
Extremely satisfied	21.0%	15.0%	23.4%	—	—
Household income				NA	1739.6; (3, 𝑃<.0001)
$25,000 or less (bottom quintile)	25.3%	43.4%	18.2%	—	—
$25,000.01 to $50,000	30.7%	33.7%	29.5%	—	—
$50,000.01 to $90,000	28.5%	16.6%	33.1%	—	—
More than $90,000.01; (top quintile)	15.6%	6.3%	19.2%	—	—
Employed^c	61.9%	41.5%	70.4%	29.0; (27.6, 30.3)	1696.4; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
Student^c	5.7%	3.2%	6.7%	3.6; (2.9, 4.2)	113.3; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
Urban areas^c	74.4%	72.3%	75.3%	3.0; (1.7, 4.4)	18.5; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
Regions				NA
Atlantic	20.3%	23.0%	19.2%	−3.8; (−5.0, −2.7)	43.0; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
Quebec	18.1%	14.5%	20.0%	5.1; (4.0, 6.1)	82.3; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
Ontario	21.5%	23.8%	20.5%	3.0; (1.7, 4.4)	31.0; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
West	28.9%	26.4%	30.0%	3.6; (2.3, 4.9)	30.2; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
North	11.2%	12.3%	10.8%	−1.5; (−2.4, −0.6)	11.2; (1, 𝑃<.0008)
Gender (female)^c	54.5%	53.4%	55.0%	1.7; (0.3, 3.1)	5.2; (1, 𝑃<.022)
Immigrants^c	18.2%	25.7%	15.1%	−10.6; (−11.7, −9.4)	315.5; (1, 𝑃<.0001)
Born in Canada^c	71.8%	64.4%	74.9%	10.6; (9.3, 11.8)	263.1; (1, 𝑃<.0001)

aData source: International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS) 2003.
^bAll descriptive summary statistics are unweighted
^cDummy variables (1 versus 0).
^dLimited health literacy: health literacy level 1; nonlimited health literacy: health literacy level 2,3, and 4.
NA: not applicable; HL: health literacy; CL: confidence interval; UL: upper limit; LL: lower limit; DF: degrees of freedom; IALSS = International Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey.