Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics associated with health literacy in people hospitalized for chronic diseases.
Francini de Oliveira Rodrigues, Eliana Elisa Rehfeld Gheno, Letícia Y Castro and 3 others
PMID 40332191WHAT IT FOUND
Hospitalized chronic disease patients reported greater ability to engage with providers and navigate care, but weaker ability to appraise and find health information.
Older patients and those with less schooling scored lower on understanding information.
Key findings
01Patients reported strengths in actively engaging with healthcare providers, navigating the health system, and receiving social support for health, but weaknesses in appraising health information, having sufficient information to manage health, and finding good health information.
02Older age was associated with lower scores on appraising health information and on finding and understanding health information.
03Patients taking part in the Preventive Medicine program scored higher on having sufficient information to manage their health than patients not taking part.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was a cross-sectional survey, so it can show associations at one time point but cannot show that age, schooling, or the Preventive Medicine program caused changes in health literacy. It was done in one 76-bed hospital in Brazil, and most patients were older, white, and hospitalized with cardiovascular disease, so results may not apply to other settings or populations. Health literacy was measured by self-report, and the supplied text reports questionnaire scores and associations, not outcomes such as readmission, treatment adherence, or self-management. Patients with non-preserved cognition were excluded, so the findings do not speak to hospitalized adults who cannot reliably self-report.
Declared interests
Funding was provided in part by CAPES (Finance Code 001) and CNPq (Grant # 306855/2021-6). No other funding or conflict statements are given in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the Preventive Medicine program as proven to improve health literacy. This cross-sectional study measured association at one time point and did not randomize patients, so it cannot show that the program caused higher scores.