[Health literacy in patients with heart failure treated in primary care].

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The level of health literacy is examined, as well as its conditioning factors in patients with heart failure who are seen routinely in a Primary Health Care Area.

Design

A multicentre cross-sectional study.

Setting

10 Primary care centres from the metropolitan area of Barcelona.

Participants

Patients diagnosed with heart failure.

Inclusion criteria

to have visited the Primary Health Care centre in the last year, being able to arrive at the primary care setting independently, and voluntarily participation.

Main measurements

Health Literacy Survey-European Union - Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q) and Spanish version of the European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale. An analysis was made of the relationships between health literacy, self-care practices, sociodemographic, and clinical variables using ANOVA test and a multiple linear regression model.

Results

The study included 318 patients (51.2% women) with a mean age of 77.9±8.7 years. The index of health literacy of 79.6% (n=253) of the participants indicated problems in understanding healthcare information. Health literacy level was explained by academic level (P<.001), the extent of heart failure (P=.032), self-care, and age (P<.04).The academic level explained 61.6% of the health of literacy (95% bootstrap: 44.58%; 46.75%).

Conclusions

In patients with stable heart failure, it is important to consider all factors that help patients to understand the healthcare information. Health literacy explains patient self-care attitude in heart failure.

SUBMITTER: Santesmases-Masana R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6875916 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature