Introduction:

Health Literacy (HL) of the patient's family member in palliative care is a growing concern for improving the care to be provided by professionals. Studies have shown an inadequate level of literacy in the Portuguese population.

Objectives:

To evaluate the HL level of family members of patients admitted to Palliative Care Units (PCU) and to analyze the relationship between HL and sociodemographic variables.

Methods:

Quantitative descriptive-correlational study with a non-probabilistic sample for convenience of 96 family members from the central region of Portugal. A questionnaire of sociodemographic data and application of the HLS-EU-PT was used, translated and validated in Portugal by Pedro et al (2014), which deals with 3 dimensions (HL for Health Care, HL for Disease Prevention and HL Health Promotion).

Results:

Family members, mostly women (67.7%), main caregivers (73.8%), aged ≤ 64 years (84.6%), grade kinship child (41.7%), living with partner (64.6%) and with children (56.3%). They live in urban areas (54.2%), with basic education and exercising their profession (61.5%). They have no experience in PC (90.6%) or in the health area (87.5%). Family members have a higher Literacy Index in Disease Prevention (M = 31.06 ± 9.59) and lower in Health Promotion (M = 26.57 ± 10.69). In all dimensions, the levels of Literacy are distributed between the Inadequate and the Problematic.

Conclusions:

The results revealed low levels of Health Literacy. Professionals, when planning Care for the patient and their family, should institute actions that promote their empowerment.

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