Dataset Information
Racial disparities in health literacy and access to care among patients with heart failure.
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ABSTRACT: Background
Previous work has shown that there is a higher frequency of hospitalizations among black heart failure patients relative to white heart failure patients. We sought to determine whether racial differences exist in health literacy and access to outpatient medical care, and to identify factors associated with these differences.Methods
We evaluated data from 1464 heart failure patients (644 black and 820 white). Health literacy was assessed using the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine-Revised (ie, REALM-R), and access to care was assessed through participants' self-report.Results
Black race was strongly associated with worse health literacy and all measures of poor access to care in unadjusted analyses. After adjusting for demographics, noncardiac comorbidity, social support, insurance status, and socioeconomic status (income and education), the strongest associations were seen between race and: health literacy (OR 2.13, 95% CI 1.46 to 3.10), absence of a medical home (OR 1.76, 1.19-2.61), and cost as a deterrent to seeking health care (OR 1.55, 1.07 to 2.23).Conclusions
Our findings highlight that important racial differences in health literacy and access to care exist among patients with heart failure. These differences persist even after adjustment for a broad range of potential mediators, including educational attainment, income, and insurance status.
SUBMITTER: Chaudhry SI
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3053061 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Racial disparities in health literacy and access to care among patients with heart failure.
Journal of cardiac failure 20101126 2
<h4>Background</h4>Previous work has shown that there is a higher frequency of hospitalizations among black heart failure patients relative to white heart failure patients. We sought to determine whether racial differences exist in health literacy and access to outpatient medical care, and to identify factors associated with these differences.<h4>Methods</h4>We evaluated data from 1464 heart failure patients (644 black and 820 white). Health literacy was assessed using the Rapid Estimate of Adul ...[more]
