Health Literacy Risk in Older Adults With and Without Mild Cognitive Impairment.
Yong B Liu, Yan L Chen, Hui P Xue and 1 others
PMID 31693548WHAT IT FOUND
Older adults with mild cognitive impairment had lower health literacy than those with normal cognitive function.
More had marginal or inadequate health literacy, so health information may need to be accessible and understandable.
Key findings
01Older adults with mild cognitive impairment scored lower on health literacy than those with normal cognitive function.
02The normal cognitive function group showed mainly adequate or marginal health literacy, while the mild cognitive impairment group showed mainly marginal or inadequate health literacy.
03Higher health literacy was associated with lower risk of mild cognitive impairment in the logistic regression analysis.
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 whether low health literacy came before mild cognitive impairment or after it. It was done only in hospital inpatient departments, so the results may not represent all older Chinese adults. It did not test any intervention, so it cannot show that improving health literacy will improve cognition.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The article is tagged as non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that improving health literacy will prevent or reverse mild cognitive impairment. The study only measured association at one time and did not test any health literacy intervention.