A cross-sectional study of health literacy in patients with chronic kidney disease: Associations with demographic and clinical variables.
Une Elisabeth Stømer, Lasse Gunnar Gøransson, Astrid Klopstad Wahl and 1 others
PMID 31660176WHAT IT FOUND
Patients with chronic kidney disease scored lowest on finding and judging health information.
Lower education, more medicines, living alone and depressive symptoms were linked to lower health literacy scores. These are flags for patient education, not proof that a fix works.
Key findings
01Patients had the lowest average scores for appraising health information (2.56 on the 1 to 4 scale) and for finding good health information (3.42 on the 1 to 5 scale).
02The 187 patients were clustered into 27 low-level, 106 mid-level and 52 high-level health literacy groups.
03When several variables were considered together, gender, education, living situation, number of prescribed medications, depressive symptoms and duration of known CKD were the variables left that possibly explained health literacy scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that any variable caused lower health literacy. It was done at a single centre and most patients were Caucasian with a Norwegian cultural background, so results may not apply elsewhere. Sample size calculation was not possible, and the number of haemodialysis patients included was limited. The health literacy questionnaire gives separate scale scores and no total score or cut-off, so it does not diagnose health literacy. Some eligible patients declined, so participants may differ from those who did not take part.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. No funding statement is included in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these links as evidence that improving education, reducing medicines, adding social support or treating depression will raise health literacy. The study measured health literacy and the linked variables at the same time, so it shows association, not cause and effect.