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

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.