title: Insufficient evidence on health literacy amongst Indigenous people with cancer: a systematic literature review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Indigenous people experience poorer cancer survival outcomes compared with non-Indigenous people. Currently, there is growing awareness of poor health literacy as a determinant of cancer outcomes. However, little attention has been given to researching cancer-related health literacy amongst Indigenous people.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To systematically review empirical studies of cancer health literacy amongst Indigenous people worldwide.
  
  
  METHODS
  Articles were identified in Medline (1946-2013); Pre-Medline; CINAHL; PsycINFO (1967-2013); PubMed; Current Contents/All Editions (1993-2013); Allied Health and Complimentary Medicine (1985-2013), and in the reference lists of retrieved articles and by expert consultation. 64 abstracts were screened for inclusion and 16 articles were retained.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There is a paucity of high-quality research concerning of health literacy amongst Indigenous cancer patients. No articles used formal measures of health literacy and data on the prevalence of health literacy was not reported. Of the 7 articles describing interventions only one included a control group and the remainder employed quasi-experimental methods.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Research is needed to explore the cultural relevance of existing measures of health literacy and to document the prevalence of health literacy amongst Indigenous people with cancer. A better understanding of Indigenous cancer patients' health literacy is required before health literacy interventions can be designed to improve Indigenous cancer outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Menzies School of Health Research, Brisbane, Australia.|Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Belinda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Thewes
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McCaffery
authors.affiliation: Menzies School of Health Research, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Menzies School of Health Research, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Gail
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Garvey
mesh_terms: D054521:Cultural Competency; D014943:Global Health; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D057220:Health Literacy; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms; D044382:Population Groups / Q000193:education*