{"doi":"10.3390/ijerph17072356","title":"Considering Health Literacy, Health Decision Making, and Health Communication in the Social Networks of Vulnerable New Mothers in Hawai‘i: A Pilot Feasibility Study","abstract":"Health literacy is understudied in the context of social networks. Our pilot study goal was to consider this research gap among vulnerable, low-income mothers of minority ethnic background in the state of Hawai'i, USA. Recruitment followed a modified snowball sampling approach. First, we identified and interviewed seven mothers (\"egos\") in a state-sponsored home visiting program. We then sought to interview individuals whom each mother said was part of her health decision-making network (\"first-level alters\") and all individuals whom the first-level alters said were part of their health decision-making networks (\"second-level alters\"). Health literacy was self-reported using a validated item. A total of 18 people were interviewed, including all mothers (n = 7), 35% of the first-level alters (n = 7/20), and 36% of the second-level alters (n = 4/11). On average, the mothers made health decisions with 2.9 people (range: 1-6); partners/spouses and mothers/mothers-in-law were most common. One mother had low health literacy; her two first-level alters also had low health literacy. Across the full sample, the average number of people in individuals' health decision networks was 2.5 (range: 0-7); 39% of those interviewed had low health literacy. This can inform the design of future studies and successful interventions to improve health literacy.","journal":"International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health","year":2020,"id":77265,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":19,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8687,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":402486,"name":"Joy Agner","orcid":"0000-0002-5331-6215","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":403530,"name":"Ruth Pitt","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":402487,"name":"James W. Davis","orcid":"0000-0002-2518-5844","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":402488,"name":"Mary Guo","orcid":"0000-0001-6883-1781","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":403531,"name":"Elizabeth McFarlane","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":366791,"name":"Tetine Sentell","orcid":"0000-0003-3548-1281","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":84,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:48:50.085103Z","pmid":"32244326","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}