Health Literacy, Cognitive Function, and Mortality in Patients With Heart Failure.
Tyler A Kuhn, Emily C Gathright, Mary A Dolansky and 3 others
PMID 34581712WHAT IT FOUND
Two health literacy tests did not predict death in adults with heart failure.
Cognitive screening scores were associated with mortality, but that was not the main tested question.
Key findings
01REALM health literacy scores did not predict all-cause mortality after controlling for age, sex, and race.
02METER health literacy scores did not predict all-cause mortality after controlling for age, sex, and race.
03Adding 3MS cognitive scores to the models was associated with mortality in both health literacy analyses.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
74 of the 372 recruited participants were excluded because they lacked health literacy or cognitive scores. The sample was mostly white, well educated, and English-speaking, and both health literacy tests were English-only. Only 57 deaths occurred during follow-up, so the study may be too small to rule out a true association. Cognitive function was measured with one screening test, not multiple cognitive domains. The cognitive result was added after the main health literacy analyses were not significant. The study used objective health literacy tests, not self-reported perceived health literacy, and different measures can classify patients differently.
Declared interests
The paper is listed as supported by NIH extramural research. No author conflict-of-interest declaration is provided in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that health literacy screening lowers death risk or that cognitive screening should guide patient care. The health literacy tests did not predict mortality, and the cognitive association was added after the main models and did not test nurse-delivered care.