Background: health literacy may contribute to the strategies to control the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), as individuals need to acquire promptly new health information, understand the reasons behind recommendations, and adapt their behaviour accordingly.
Objectives: to investigate sociodemographic and disease-related factors that can influence self-perceived knowledge (poor/medium vs high) about COVID-19 in women of the Italian NINFEA birth cohort.
Design: cross-sectional study.
Setting and participants: a web-based anonymous survey on COVID-19 was sent in April 2020 to women participating in the NINFEA cohort. A total of 3,129 women were included in the study.
Main outcome measures: using multiple weighted logistic regression models, self-perceived knowledge level was analysed in relation with the following variables: age, education level, family size, cumulative incidence of severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) cases until 7 April 2020 by province, presence of COVID-19-like symptoms, SARS-CoV-2 testing, and COVID-19 diagnosis.
Results: the prevalence of self-perceived poor/medium knowledge was 57%. In multivariable logistic regression analyses, the odds ratio (OR) of self-perceived poor/medium COVID-19 knowledge level was increased for low/medium compared with high education level (OR 1.57; 95%CI 1.34-1.84), and decreased for SARS-CoV-2 testing (OR 0.25; 95%CI 0.16-0.39) and COVID-19 diagnosis (OR 0.20; 95%CI 0.07-0.60). There was no evidence of association between the other analysed variables and self-perceived knowledge level.
Conclusions: the findings of this study suggest that low educational level is a determinant of low self-perceived knowledge on COVID-19 in middle-aged women.
Keywords: COVID-19; health literacy; self-perceived knowledge; Italy; NINFEA.