title: Does literacy education improve symptoms of depression and self-efficacy in individuals with low literacy and depressive symptoms? A preliminary investigation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Individuals with low literacy and symptoms of depression have greater improvement of depression symptoms when their treatment includes education to enhance literacy skills. The reason why literacy enhancement helps depression symptoms is unknown, but we hypothesize that it might be due to improved self-efficacy. We studied whether providing literacy education to individuals with both depression symptoms and limited literacy might improve their self-efficacy.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 39 individuals enrolled in an adult literacy program and who, on further testing with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) had symptoms of depression. While they participated in the literacy program, we monitored their self-efficacy using the General Self Efficacy (GSE) scale, and also monitored the severity of depression symptoms with the PHQ-9. Changes in GSE and PHQ-9 scores from baseline were assessed with the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirty-one (79.5%) subjects participated for 1 year. There was a significant increase in their self-efficacy (P = .019) and a significant decrease in depression symptoms (P < .002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this preliminary study suggest that among persons with low literacy and symptoms of depression, depression symptoms lessen as self-efficacy scores improve during participation in adult basic literacy education.
authors.affiliation: Community Health Partners, Livingston, MT, USA.
authors.forename: Laurie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Francis
authors.forename: Barry D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: Janet H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Senf
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Heist
authors.forename: Rie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hargraves
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D015397:Program Evaluation; D020377:Self Efficacy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States